{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21033/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21033","id":"gutenberg_21033","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21033","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Indian mythology -- North America","Native America"],"text":"Produced by Thomas Strong, Carlo Traverso, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at\nhttp://gallica.bnf.fr)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.\n\n                            J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR.\n\n\n                                   SKETCH\n\n                                   OF THE\n\n                    MYTHOLOGY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.\n\n                                     BY\n\n                                 J. W. POWELL.\n\n\n\n                           SKETCH OF THE MYTHOLOGY\n\n                                   OF THE\n\n                           NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.\n\n\n                               BY J. W. POWELL.\n\n\n                         _THE GENESIS OF PHILOSOPHY._\n\nThe wonders of the course of nature have ever challenged attention. In\nsavagery, in barbarism, and in civilization alike, the mind of man has\nsought the explanation of things. The movements of the heavenly bodies,\nthe change of seasons, the succession of night and day, the powers of\nthe air, majestic mountains, ever-flowing rivers, perennial springs, the\nflight of birds, the gliding of serpents, the growth of trees, the\nblooming of flowers, the forms of storm-carved rocks, the mysteries of\nlife and death, the institutions of society--many are the things to be\nexplained. The yearning to know is universal. _How_ and _why_ are\neverlasting interrogatories profoundly instinct in humanity. In the\nevolution of the human mind, the instinct of cosmic interrogation\nfollows hard upon the instinct of self-preservation.\n\nIn all the operations of nature, man's weal and woe are involved. A cold\nwave sweeps from the north--rivers and lakes are frozen, forests are\nburied under snows, and the fierce winds almost congeal the life-fluids\nof man himself, and indeed man's sources of supply are buried under the\nrocks of water. At another time the heavens are as brass, and the clouds\ncome and go with mockery of unfulfilled promises of rain, the fierce\nmidsummer sun pours its beams upon the sands, and blasts heated in the\nfurnace of the desert sear the vegetation; and the fruits, which in more\ncongenial seasons are subsistence and luxury, shrivel before the eyes of\nfamishing men. A river rages and destroys the adjacent valley with its\nflood. A mountain bursts forth with its rivers of fire, the land is\nburied and the people are swept away. Lightning shivers a tree and rends\na skull. The silent, unseen powers of nature, too, are at work bringing\npain or joy, health or sickness, life or death, to mankind. In like\nmanner man's welfare is involved in all the institutions of society. _How_\nand _why_ are the questions asked about all these things--questions\nspringing from the deepest instinct of self-preservation.\n\nIn all stages of savage, barbaric, and civilized inquiry, every question\nhas found an answer, every _how_ has had its _thus_, every _why_ its\n_because_. The sum of the answers to the questions raised by any people\nconstitute its philosophy; hence all peoples have had philosophies\nconsisting of their accepted explanation of things. Such a philosophy\nmust necessarily result from the primary instincts developed in man in\nthe early progress of his differentiation from the beast. This I\npostulate: if demonstration is necessary, demonstration is at hand. Not\nonly has every people a philosophy, but every stage of culture is\ncharacterized by its stage of philosophy. Philosophy has been unfolded\nwith the evolution of the human understanding. The history of philosophy\nis the history of human opinions from the earlier to the later\ndays--from the lower to the higher culture.\n\nIn the production of a philosophy, phenomena must be _discerned_,\n_discriminated_, _classified_. Discernment, discrimination, and\nclassification are the processes by which a philosophy is developed. In\nstudying the philosophy of a people at any stage of culture, to\nunderstand what such a people entertain as the sum of their knowledge,\nit is necessary that we should understand what phenomena they saw,\nheard, felt, discerned; what discriminations they made, and what\nresemblances they seized upon as a basis for the classification on which\ntheir explanations rested. A philosophy will be higher in the scale,\nnearer the truth, as the discernment is wider, the discrimination nicer,\nand the classification better.\n\nThe sense of the savage is dull compared with the sense of the civilized\nman. There is a myth current in civilization to the effect that the\nbarbarian has highly developed perceptive faculties. It has no more\nfoundation than the myth of the wisdom of the owl. A savage sees but few\nsights, hears but few sounds, tastes but few flavors, smells but few\nodors; his whole sensuous life is narrow and blunt, and his facts that\nare made up of the combination of sensuous impressions are few. In\ncomparison, the civilized man has his vision extended away toward the\ninfinitesimal and away toward the infinite; his perception of sound is\nmultiplied to the comprehension of rapturous symphonies; his perception\nof taste is increased to the enjoyment of delicious viands; his\nperception of smell is developed to the appreciation of most exquisite\nperfumes; and his facts that are made up of the combination of sensuous\nimpressions are multiplied beyond enumeration. The stages of discernment\nfrom the lowest savage to the highest civilized man constitute a series\nthe end of which is far from the beginning.\n\nIf the discernment of the savage is little, his discrimination is less.\nAll his sensuous perceptions are confused; but the confusion of\nconfusion is that universal habit of savagery--the confusion of the\nobjective with the subjective--so that the savage sees, hears, tastes,\nsmells, feels the imaginings of his own mind. Subjectively determined\nsensuous processes are diseases in civilization, but normal, functional\nmethods in savagery.\n\nThe savage philosopher classifies by obvious resemblances--analogic\ncharacters. The civilized philosopher classifies by essential\naffinitives--homologic characteristics--and the progress of philosophy\nis marked by changes from analogic categories to homologic categories.\n\n\n                  _TWO GRAND STAGES OF PHILOSOPHY._\n\nThere are two grand stages of philosophy--the mythologic and scientific.\nIn the first, all phenomena are explained by analogies derived from\nsubjective human experiences; in the latter, phenomena are explained as\norderly successions of events.\n\nIn sublime egotism, man first interprets the cosmos as an extension of\nhimself; he classifies the phenomena of the outer word by their\nanalogies with subjective phenomena; his measure of distance is his own\npace, his measure of time his own sleep, for he says, \"It is a thousand\npaces to the great rock,\" or, \"It is a hundred sleeps to the great\nfeast.\" Noises are voices, powers are hands, movements are made afoot.\nBy subjective examination discovering in himself will and design, and by\ninductive reason discovering will and design in his fellow men and in\nanimals, he extends the induction to all the cosmos, and there discovers\nin all things will and design. All phenomena are supposed to be the acts\nof some one, and that some one having will and purpose. In mythologic\nphilosophy the phenomena of the outer physical world are supposed to be\nthe acts of living, willing, designing personages. The simple are\ncompared with and explained by the complex. In scientific philosophy,\nphenomena are supposed to be children of antecedent phenomena, and so\nfar as science goes with its explanation they are thus interpreted. Man\nwith the subjective phenomena gathered about him is studied from an\nobjective point of view, and the phenomena of subjective life are\nrelegated to the categories established in the classification of the\nphenomena of the outer world; thus the complex is studied by resolving\nit into its simple constituents.\n\nThere is an unknown known, and there is a known unknown. The unknown\nknown is the philosophy of savagery; the known unknown is the philosophy\nof civilization. In those stages of culture that we call savagery and\nbarbarism, all things are known--supposed to be known; but when at last\nsomething is known, understood, explained, then to those who have that\nknowledge in full comprehension all other things become unknown. Then is\nushered in the era of investigation and discovery; then science is born;\nthen is the beginning of civilization. The philosophy of savagery is\ncomplete; the philosophy of civilization fragmentary. Ye men of science,\nye wise fools, ye have discovered the law of gravity, but ye cannot\ntell what gravity is. But savagery has a cause and a method for all\nthings; nothing is left unexplained.\n\nIn the lower stages of savagery the cosmos is bounded by the great plain\nof land and sea on which we tread, and the firmament, the azure surface\nabove, set with brilliants; and beyond is an abyss of--nothing. Within\nthese bounds all things are known, all things are explained; there are\nno mysteries but the whims of the gods. But when the plain on which we\ntread becomes a portion of the surface of a great globe, and the domed\nfirmament becomes the heavens, stretching beyond Alcyone and Sirius,\nwith this enlargement of the realm of philosophy the verity of\nphilosophy is questioned. The savage is a positive man; the scientist is\na doubting man.\n\nThe opinions of a savage people are childish. Society grows! Some say\nsociety develops; others that society evolves; but, somehow, I like to\nsay it grows. The history of the discovery of growth is a large part of\nthe history of human culture. That individuals grow, that the child\ngrows to be a man, the colt a horse, the scion a tree, is easily\nrecognized, though with unassisted eye the processes of growth are not\ndiscovered. But that races grow--races of men, races of animals, races\nof plants, races or groups of worlds--is a very late discovery, and yet\nall of us do not grasp so great a thought. Consider that stage of\nculture where the growth of individuals is not fully recognized. That\nstage is savagery. To-day the native races of North America are agitated\nby discussions over that great philosophic question, \"Do the trees grow\nor were they created?\" That the grass grows they admit, but the orthodox\nphilosophers stoutly assert that the forest pines and the great\n_sequoias_ were created as they are.\n\nThus in savagery the philosophers dispute over the immediate creation or\ndevelopment of individuals--in civilization over the immediate creation\nor development of races. I know of no single fact that better\nillustrates the wide difference between these two stages of culture. But\nlet us look for other terms of comparison. The scalping scene is no more\nthe true picture of savagery than the bayonet charge of civilization.\nSavagery is sylvan life. Contrast _Ka-ni-ga_ with New York. _Ka-ni-ga_\nis an Indian village in the Rocky Mountains. New York is, well--New\nYork. The home in the forest is a shelter of boughs; the home in New\nYork is a palace of granite. The dwellers in _Ka-ni-ga_ are clothed in\nthe skins of animals, rudely tanned, rudely wrought, and colored with\ndaubs of clay. For the garments of New York, flocks are tended, fields\nare cultivated, ships sail on the sea, and men dig in the mountains for\ndye-stuffs stored in the rocks. The industries of _Ka-ni-ga_ employ\nstone knives, bone awls, and human muscle; the industries of New York\nemploy the tools of the trades, the machinery of the manufactories, and\nthe power of the sun--for water-power is but sunshine, and the coal mine\nis but a pot of pickeled sunbeams.\n\nEven the nursery rhymes are in contrast; the prattler in New York says:\n\n                            Daffy down dilly\n                            Has come up to town,\n                            With a green petticoat\n                            And a blue gown;\n\nbut in savagery the outer and nether garments are not yet\ndifferentiated; and more: blue and green are not differentiated, for the\nIndian has but one name for the two; the green grass and the blue\nheavens are of the same hue in the Indian tongue. But the nursery tales\nof _Ka-ni-ga_ are of the animals, for the savages associate with the\nanimals on terms of recognized equality; and this is what the prattler\nin _Ka-ni-ga_ says:\n\n                            The poor little bee\n                            That lives in the tree,\n                            The poor little bee\n                            That lives in the tree,\n                            Has only one arrow\n                            In his quiver.\n\nThe arts and industries of savagery and civilization are not in greater\ncontrast than their philosophy. To fully present to you the condition of\nsavagery, as illustrated in their philosophy, three obstacles appear.\nAfter all the years I have spent among the Indians in their mountain\nvillages, I am not certain that I have sufficiently divorced myself from\nthe thoughts and ways of civilization to properly appreciate their\nchildish beliefs. The second obstacle subsists in your own knowledge of\nthe methods and powers of nature, and the ways of civilized society; and\nwhen I attempt to tell you what an Indian thinks, I fear you will never\nfully forget what you know, and thus you will be led to give too deep a\nmeaning to a savage explanation; or, on the other hand, contrasting an\nIndian concept with your own, the manifest absurdity will sound to you\nas an idle tale too simple to deserve mention, or too false to deserve\ncredence. The third difficulty lies in the attempt to put savage\nthoughts into civilized language; our words are so full of meaning,\ncarry with them so many great thoughts and collateral ideas.\n\nSome examples of the philosophic methods belonging to widely separated\ngrades of culture may serve to make the previous statements clearer.\n\n_Wind._--The _Ute_ philosopher discerns that men and animals breathe. He\nrecognizes vaguely the phenomena of the wind, and discovers its\nresemblance to breath, and explains the winds by relegating them to the\nclass of breathings. He declares that there is a monster beast in the\nnorth that breathes the winter winds, and another in the south, and\nanother in the east, and another in the west. The facts relating to\nwinds are but partially discerned; the philosopher has not yet\ndiscovered that there is an earth-surrounding atmosphere. He fails in\nmaking the proper discriminations. His relegation of the winds to the\nclass of breathings is analogic, but not homologic. The basis of his\nphilosophy is personality, and hence he has four wind-gods.\n\nThe philosopher of the ancient Northland discovered that he could cool\nhis brow with a fan, or kindle a flame, or sweep away the dust with the\nwafted air. The winds also cooled his brow, the winds also swept away\nthe dust and kindled the fire into a great conflagration, and when the\nwind blew he said, \"Somebody is fanning the waters of the fiord,\" or\n\"Somebody is fanning the evergreen forests,\" and he relegated the winds\nto the class of fannings, and he said, \"The god Hr\u00e6svelger, clothed\nwith eagle-plumes, is spreading his wings for flight, and the winds rise\nfrom under them.\"\n\nThe early Greek philosopher discovered that air may be imprisoned in\nvessels or move in the ventilation of caves, and he recognized wind as\nsomething more than breath, something more than fanning, something that\ncan be gathered up and scattered abroad, and so when the winds blew he\nsaid, \"The sacks have been untied,\" or \"The caves have been opened.\"\n\nThe philosopher of civilization, has discovered that breath, the\nfan-wafted breeze, the air confined in vessels, the air moving in\nventilation, that these are all parts of the great body of air which\nsurrounds the earth, all in motion, swung by the revolving earth, heated\nat the tropics, cooled at the poles, and thus turned into\ncounter-currents and again deflected by a thousand geographic features,\nso that the winds sweep down valleys, eddy among mountain crags, or waft\nthe spray from the crested billows of the sea, all in obedience to\ncosmic laws. The facts discerned are many, the discriminations made are\nnice, and the classifications based on true homologies, and we have the\nscience of meteorology, which exhibits an orderly succession of events\neven in the fickle winds.\n\n_Sun and Moon._--The _Ute_ philosopher declares the sun to be a living\npersonage, and explains his passage across the heavens along an\nappointed way by giving an account of a fierce personal conflict between\n_T\u00e4-vi_, the sun-god, and _Ta-wats_, one of the supreme gods of his\nmythology.\n\nIn that long ago, the time to which all mythology refers, the sun roamed\nthe earth at will. When he came too near with his fierce heat the people\nwere scorched, and when he hid away in his cave for a long time, too\nidle to come forth, the night was long and the earth cold. Once upon a\ntime _Ta-wats_, the hare-god, was sitting with his family by the\ncamp-fire in the solemn woods, anxiously waiting for the return of\n_T\u00e4-vi_, the wayward sun-god. Wearied with long watching, the hare-god\nfell asleep, and the sun-god came so near that he scorched the naked\nshoulder of _Ta-wats_. Foreseeing the vengeance which would be thus\nprovoked, he fled back to his cave beneath the earth. _Ta-wats_ awoke\nin great anger, and speedily determined to go and fight the sun-god.\nAfter a long journey of many adventures the hare-god came to the brink\nof the earth, and there watched long and patiently, till at last the\nsun-god coming out he shot an arrow at his face, but the fierce heat\nconsumed the arrow ere it had finished its intended course; then another\narrow was sped, but that was also consumed; and another, and still\nanother, till only one remained in his quiver, but this was the magical\narrow that had never failed its mark. _Ta-wats_, holding it in\nhis hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized it in a divine tear;\nthen the arrow was sped and struck the sun-god full in the face, and the\nsun was shivered into a thousand fragments, which fell to the earth,\ncausing a general conflagration. Then _Ta-wats_, the hare-god,\nfled before the destruction he had wrought, and as he fled the burning\nearth consumed his feet, consumed his legs, consumed his body, consumed\nhis hands and his arms--all were consumed but the head alone, which\nbowled across valleys and over mountains, fleeing destruction from the\nburning earth until at last, swollen with heat, the eyes of the god\nburst and the tears gushed forth in a flood which spread over the earth\nand extinguished the fire. The sun-god was now conquered, and he\nappeared before a council of the gods to await sentence. In that long\ncouncil were established the days and the nights, the seasons and the\nyears, with the length thereof, and the sun was condemned to travel\nacross the firmament by the same trail day after day till the end of\ntime.\n\nIn this same philosophy we learn that in that ancient time a council of\nthe gods was held to consider the propriety of making a moon, and at\nlast the task was given to Whippoorwill, a god of the night, and a frog\nyielded himself a willing sacrifice for this purpose, and the\nWhippoorwill, by incantations, and other magical means, transformed the\nfrog into the new moon. The truth of this origin of the moon is made\nevident to our very senses; for do we not see the frog riding the moon\nat night, and the moon is cold, because the frog from which it was made\nwas cold?\n\nThe philosopher of _Oraibi_ tells us that when the people ascended by\nmeans of the magical tree which constituted the ladder from the lower\nworld to this, they found the firmament, the ceiling of this world, low\ndown upon the earth--the floor of this world, _Matcito_, one of their\ngods, raised the firmament on his shoulders to where it is now seen.\nStill the world was dark, as there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. So\nthe people murmured because of the darkness and the cold. _Matcito_\nsaid, \"Bring me seven maidens,\" and they brought him seven maidens; and\nhe said, \"Bring me seven baskets of cotton-bolls,\" and they brought him\nseven baskets of cotton-bolls; and he taught the seven maidens to weave\na magical fabric from the cotton, and when they had finished it he held\nit aloft, and the breeze carried it away toward the firmament, and in\nthe twinkling of an eye it was transformed into a beautiful full-orbed\nmoon, and the same breeze caught the remnants of flocculent cotton which\nthe maidens had scattered during their work, and carried them aloft,\nand they were transformed into bright stars. But still it was cold and\nthe people murmured again, and _Matcito_ said, \"Bring me seven buffalo\nrobes,\" and they brought him seven buffalo robes, and from the densely\nmatted hair of the robes he wove another wonderful fabric, which the\nstorm carried away into the sky, and it was transformed into the\nfull-orbed sun. Then _Matcito_ appointed times and seasons and ways for\nthe heavenly bodies, and the gods of the firmament have obeyed the\ninjunctions of _Matcito_ from the day of their creation to the present.\n\nThe Norse philosopher tells us that Night and Day, each, has a horse and\na car, and they drive successively one after the other around the world\nin twenty-four hours. Night rides first with her steed named Dew-hair,\nand every morning as he ends his course he bedews the earth with foam\nfrom his bit. The steed driven by Day is Shining-hair. All the sky and\nearth glisten with the light of his mane. Jarnved, the great iron-wood\nforest lying to the east of Midgard, is the abode of a race of witches.\nOne monster witch is the mother of many sons in the form of wolves, two\nof which are Skol and Hate. Skol is the wolf that would devour the\nmaiden Sun, and she daily flies from the maw of the terrible beast, and\nthe moon-man flies from the wolf Hate.\n\nThe philosopher of Samos tells us that the earth is surrounded by hollow\ncrystalline spheres set one within another, and all revolving at\ndifferent rates from east to west about the earth, and that the sun is\nset in one of these spheres and the moon in another.\n\nThe philosopher of civilization tells us that the sun is an incandescent\nglobe, one of the millions afloat in space. About this globe the planets\nrevolve, and the sun and planets and moons were formed from nebulous\nmatter by the gradual segregation of their particles controlled by the\nlaws of gravity, motion, and affinity.\n\nThe sun, traveling by an appointed way across the heavens with the\nnever-ending succession of day and night, and the ever-recurring train\nof seasons, is one of the subjects of every philosophy. Among all\npeoples, in all times, there is an explanation of these phenomena, but\nin the lowest stage, way down in savagery, how few the facts discerned,\nhow vague the discriminations made, how superficial the resemblances by\nwhich the phenomena are classified! In this stage of culture, all the\ndaily and monthly and yearly phenomena which come as the direct result\nof the movements of the heavenly bodies are interpreted as the doings of\nsome one--some god acts. In civilization the philosopher presents us the\nscience of astronomy with all its accumulated facts of magnitude, and\nweights, and orbits, and distances, and velocities--with all the nice\ndiscriminations of absolute, relative, and apparent motions; and all\nthese facts he is endeavoring to classify in homologic categories, and\nthe evolutions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies are explained as\nan orderly succession of events.\n\n_Rain._--The _Shoshoni_ philosopher believes the domed firmament to be\nice, and surely it is the very color of ice, and he believes further\nthat a monster serpent-god coils his huge back to the firmament and with\nhis scales abrades its face and causes the ice-dust to fall upon the\nearth. In the winter-time it falls as snow, but in the summer-time it\nmelts and falls as rain, and the Shoshoni philosopher actually sees the\nserpent of the storm in the rainbow of many colors.\n\nThe _Oraibi_ philosopher who lives in a _pueblo_ is acquainted with\narchitecture, and so his world is seven-storied. There is a world below\nand five worlds above this one. _Mui\u00f1wa_, the rain-god, who lives in\nthe world immediately above, dips his great brush, made of feathers of\nthe birds of the heavens, into the lakes of the skies and sprinkles the\nearth with refreshing rain for the irrigation of the crops tilled by\nthese curious Indians who live on the cliffs of Arizona. In winter,\n_Mui\u00f1wa_ crushes the ice of the lakes of the heavens and scatters it\nover the earth, and we have a snow-fall.\n\nThe Hindoo philosopher says that the lightning-bearded Indra breaks the\nvessels that hold the waters of the skies with his thunder-bolts, and\nthe rains descend to irrigate the earth.\n\nThe philosopher of civilization expounds to us the methods by which the\nwaters are evaporated from the land and the surface of the sea, and\ncarried away by the winds, and gathered into clouds to be discharged\nagain upon the earth, keeping up forever that wonderful circulation of\nwater from the heavens to the earth and from the earth to the\nheavens--that orderly succession of events in which the waters travel by\nriver, by sea, and by cloud.\n\n_Rainbow._--In _Shoshoni_, the rainbow is a beautiful serpent that\nabrades the firmament of ice to give us snow and rain. In Norse, the\nrainbow is the bridge Bifrost spanning the space between heaven and\nearth. In the Iliad, the rainbow is the goddess Iris, the messenger of\nthe King of Olympus. In Hebrew, the rainbow is the witness to a\ncovenant. In science, the rainbow is an analysis of white light into its\nconstituent colors by the refraction of raindrops.\n\n_Falling stars._--In _Ute_, falling stars are the excrements of dirty\nlittle star-gods. In science--well, I do not know what falling stars are\nin science. I think they are cinders from the furnace where the worlds\nare forged. You may call this mythologic or scientific, as you please.\n\n_Migration of birds._--The _Algonkian_ philosopher explains the\nmigration of birds by relating the myth of the combat between\n_Ka-bi-bo-no-ki_ and _Shi\u00f1gapis_, the prototype or progenitor of the\nwater-hen, one of their animal gods. A fierce battle raged between\n_Ka-bi-bo-no-ki_ and _Shi\u00f1gapis_, but the latter could not be\nconquered. All the birds were driven from the land but _Shi\u00f1gapis_; and\nthen was it established that whenever in the future Winter-maker should\ncome with his cold winds, fierce snows, and frozen waters, all the birds\nshould leave for the south except _Shi\u00f1gapis_ and his friends. So the\nbirds that spend their winters north are called by the _Algonkian_\nphilosophers \"the friends of _Shi\u00f1gapis_.\"\n\nIn contrast to this explanation of the flight of birds may be placed the\nexplanation of the modern evolutionist, who says that the birds migrate\nin quest of abundance of food and a genial climate, guided by an\ninstinct of migration, which is an accumulation of inherited memories.\n\n_Diversity of languages._--The _Kaib\u00e4bit_ philosopher accounts for\nthe diversity of languages in this manner: _Si-tcom'-pa\nMa-s\u00f3-its_, the grandmother goddess of the sea, brought up mankind\nfrom beneath the waves in a sack, which she delivered to the\n_Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_ brothers, the great wolf-gods of his mythology, and told\nthem, to carry it from the shores of the sea to the Kaibab Plateau, and\nthen to open it; but they were by no means to open the package ere their\narrival, lest some great disaster should befall. The curiosity of the\nyounger _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_ overcame him, and he untied the sack, and the\npeople swarmed out; but the elder _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_, the wiser god, ran\nback and closed the sack while yet not all the people had escaped, and\nthey carried the sack, with its remaining contents, to the plateau, and\nthere opened it. Those that remained in the sack found a beautiful\nland--a great plateau covered with mighty forests, through which elk,\ndeer, and antelope roamed in abundance, and many mountain-sheep were\nfound on the bordering crags; _piv_, the nuts of the edible pine, they\nfound on the foot-hills, and _us_, the fruit of the yucca, in sunny\nglades; and _n\u00e4nt_, the meschal crowns, for their feasts; and _tcu-ar_,\nthe cactus-apple, from which to make their wine; reeds grew about the\nlakes for their arrow-shafts; the rocks were full of flints for their\nbarbs and knives, and away down, in the ca\u00f1on they found a pipe-stone\nquarry, and on the hills they found _\u00e4r-a-\u00fbm-piv_, their tobacco.\nO, it was a beautiful land that was given to these, the favorites of the\ngods! The descendants of these people are the present _Kaib\u00e4bits_ of\nnorthern Arizona. Those who escaped by the way, through the wicked\ncuriosity of the younger _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_, scattered over the country and\nbecame _Navajos_, _Mokis_, _Sioux_, _Comanches_, Spaniards,\nAmericans--poor, sorry fragments of people without the original language\nof the gods, and only able to talk in imperfect jargons.\n\nThe Hebrew philosopher tells us that on the plains of Shinar the people\nof the world were gathered to build a city and erect a tower, the summit\nof which should reach above the waves of any flood Jehovah might send.\nBut their tongues were confused as a punishment for their impiety. The\nphilosopher of science tells us that mankind was widely scattered over\nthe earth anterior to the development of articulate speech, that the\nlanguages of which we are cognizant sprang from innumerable centers as\neach little tribe developed its own language, and that in the study of\nany language an orderly succession of events may be discovered in its\nevolution from a few simple holophrastic locutions to a complex language\nwith a multiplicity of words and an elaborate grammatic structure, by\nthe differentiation of the parts of speech and the integration of the\nsentence.\n\n_A cough._--A man coughs. In explanation the _Ute_ philosopher would\ntell us that an _u-n\u00fa-pits_--a pygmy spirit of evil--had entered the\npoor man's stomach, and he would charge the invalid with having whistled\nat night; for in their philosophy it is taught that if a man whistles at\nnight, when the pygmy spirits are abroad, one is sure to go through the\nopen door into the stomach, and the evidence of this disaster is found\nin the cough which the _u-n\u00fa-pits_ causes. Then the evil spirit must\nbe driven out, and the medicine-man stretches his patient on the ground\nand scarifies him with the claws of eagles from head to heel, and while\nperforming the scarification a group of men and women stand about,\nforming a chorus, and medicine-man and chorus perform a fugue in gloomy\nululation, for these wicked spirits will depart only by incantations and\nscarifications.\n\nIn our folk-lore philosophy a cough is caused by a \"cold,\" whatever that\nmay be--a vague entity--that must be treated first according to the\nmaxim \"Feed a cold and starve a fever,\" and the \"cold\" is driven away by\npotations of bitter teas.\n\nIn our medical philosophy a cough may be the result of a clogging of the\npores of the skin, and is relieved by clearing those flues that carry\naway the waste products of vital combustion.\n\nThese illustrations are perhaps sufficient to exhibit the principal\ncharacteristics of the two methods of philosophy, and, though they cover\nbut narrow fields, it should be remembered that every philosophy deals\nwith the whole cosmos. An explanation of all things is sought--not alone\nthe great movements of the heavens, or the phenomena that startle even\nthe unthinking, but every particular which is observed. Abstractly, the\nplane of demarkation between the two methods of philosophy can be\nsharply drawn, but practically we find them strangely mixed; mythologic\nmethods prevail in savagery and barbarism, and scientific methods\nprevail in civilization. Mythologic philosophies antedate scientific\nphilosophies. The thaumaturgic phases of mythology are the embryonic\nstages of philosophy, science being the fully developed form. Without\nmythology there could be no science, as without childhood there could be\nno manhood, or without embryonic conditions there could be no ultimate\nforms.\n\n\n             _MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY HAS FOUR STAGES._\n\nMythologic philosophy is the subject with which we deal. Its method, as\nstated in general terms, is this: All phenomena of the outer objective\nworld are interpreted by comparison with those of the inner subjective\nworld Whatever happens, some one does it; that some one has a will and\nworks as he wills. The basis of the philosophy is personality. The\npersons who do the things which we observe in the phenomena of the\nuniverse are the gods of mythology--_the cosmos is a pantheon_. Under\nthis system, whatever may be the phenomenon observed, the philosopher\nasks, \"Who does it?\" and \"Why?\" and the answer comes, \"A god with his\ndesign.\" The winds blow, and the interrogatory is answered, \"\u00c6olus frees\nthem from the cave to speed the ship of a friend, or destroy the vessel\nof a foe.\" The actors in mythologic philosophy are gods.\n\nIn the character of these gods four stages of philosophy may be\ndiscovered. In the lowest and earliest stage everything has life;\neverything is endowed with personality, will, and design; animals are\nendowed with all the wonderful attributes of mankind; all inanimate\nobjects are believed to be animate; trees think and speak; stones have\nloves and hates; hills and mountains, springs and rivers, and all the\nbright stars, have life--everything discovered objectively by the senses\nis looked upon subjectively by the philosopher and endowed with all the\nattributes supposed to be inherent in himself. In this stage of\nphilosophy everything is a god. Let us call it _hecastotheism_.\n\nIn the second stage men no longer attribute life indiscriminately to\ninanimate things; but the same powers and attributes recognized by\nsubjective vision in man are attributed to the animals by which he is\nsurrounded. No line of demarkation is drawn between man and beast; all\nare great beings endowed with wonderful attributes. Let us call this\nstage _zo\u00f6theism_, when men worship beasts. All the phenomena of nature\nare the doings of these animal gods; all the facts of nature, all the\nphenomena of the known universe, all the institutions of humanity known\nto the philosophers of this stage, are accounted for in the mythologic\nhistory of these zo\u00f6morphic gods.\n\nIn the third stage a wide gulf is placed between man and the lower\nanimals. The animal gods are dethroned, and the powers and phenomena of\nnature are personified and deified. Let us call this stage\n_physitheism_. The gods are strictly anthropomorphic, having the form as\nwell as the mental, moral, and social attributes of men. Thus we have a\ngod of the sun, a god of the moon, a god of the air, a god of dawn, and\na deity of the night.\n\nIn the fourth stage, mental, moral, and social characteristics are\npersonified and deified. Thus we have a god of war, a god of love, a god\nof revelry, a god of plenty, and like personages who preside over the\ninstitutions and occupations of mankind. Let us call this\n_psychotheism_. With the mental, moral, and social characteristics in\nthese gods are associated the powers of nature; and they differ from\nnature-gods chiefly in that they have more distinct psychic\ncharacteristics.\n\nPsychotheism, by the processes of mental integration, developes in one\ndirection into monotheism, and in the other into pantheism. When the\npowers of nature are held predominant in the minds of the philosophers\nthrough whose cogitations this evolution of theism is carried on,\npantheism, as the highest form of psychotheism, is the final result; but\nwhen the moral qualities are held in highest regard in the minds of the\nmen in whom this process of evolution is carried on, _monotheism_, or a\ngod whose essential characteristics are moral qualities, is the final\nproduct. The monotheistic god is not nature, but presides over and\noperates through, nature. Psychotheism has long been recognized. All of\nthe earlier literature of mankind treats largely of these gods, for it\nis an interesting fact that in the history of any civilized people, the\nevolution of psychotheism is approximately synchronous with the\ninvention of an alphabet. In the earliest writings of the Egyptians, the\nHindoos, and the Greeks, this stage is discovered, and Osiris, Indra,\nand Zeus are characteristic representatives. As psychotheism and written\nlanguage appear together in the evolution of culture, this stage of\ntheism is consciously or unconsciously a part of the theme of all\nwritten history.\n\nThe paleontologist, in studying the rocks of the hill and the cliffs of\nthe mountain, discovers, in inanimate stones, the life-forms of the\nancient earth. The geologist, in the study of the structure of valleys\nand mountains, discovers groups of facts that lead him to a knowledge of\nmore ancient mountains and valleys and seas, of geographic features long\nago buried, and followed by a new land with new mountains and valleys,\nand new seas. The philologist, in studying the earliest writings of a\npeople, not only discovers the thoughts purposely recorded in those\nwritings, but is able to go back in the history of the people many\ngenerations, and discover with even greater certainty the thoughts of\nthe more ancient people who made the words. Thus the writings of the\nGreeks, the Hindoos, and the Egyptians, that give an account of their\npsychic gods, also contain a description of an earlier theism\nunconsciously recorded by the writers themselves. Psychotheism prevailed\nwhen the sentences were coined, physitheism when the words were coined.\nSo the philologist discovers physitheism in all ancient literature. But\nthe verity of that stage of philosophy does not rest alone upon the\nevidence derived from the study of fossil philosophies through the\nscience of philology. In the folk-lore of every civilized people having\na psychotheistic philosophy, an earlier philosophy with nature-gods is\ndiscovered.\n\nThe different stages of philosophy which I have attempted to\ncharacterize have never been found in purity. We always observe\ndifferent methods of explanation existing side by side, and the type of\na philosophy is determined by the prevailing characteristics of its\nexplanation of phenomena. Fragments of the earlier are always found side\nby side with, the greater body of the later philosophy. Man has never\nclothed himself in new garments of wisdom, but has ever been patching\nthe old, and the old and the new are blended in the same pattern, and\nthus we have atavism in philosophy. So in the study of any philosophy\nwhich has reached the psychotheistic age, patches of the earlier\nphilosophy are always seen. Ancient nature-gods are found to be living\nand associating with the supreme psychic deities. Thus in anthropologic\nscience there are three ways by which, to go back in the history of any\ncivilized people and learn of its barbaric physitheism. But of the\nverity of this stage we have further evidence. When Christianity was\ncarried north from Central Europe, the champions of the new philosophy,\nand its consequent religion, discovered, among those who dwelt by the\nglaciers of the north, a barbaric philosophy which they have preserved\nto history in the Eddas and Sagas, and Norse literature is full of a\nphilosophy in a transition state, from physitheism to psychotheism; and,\nmark! the people discovered in this transition state were inventing an\nalphabet--they were carving Runes. Then a pure physitheism was\ndiscovered in the Aztec barbarism of Mexico; and elsewhere on the globe\nmany people were found in that stage of culture to which this philosophy\nproperly belongs. Thus the existence of physitheism as a stage of\nphilosophy is abundantly attested. Comparative mythologists are agreed\nin recognizing these two stages. They might not agree to throw all of\nthe higher and later philosophies into one group, as I have done, but\nall recognize the plane of demarkation between the higher and the lower\ngroups as I have drawn it. Scholars, too, have come essentially to an\nagreement that physitheism is earlier and older than psychotheism.\nPerhaps there may be left a \"doubting Thomas\" who believes that the\nhighest stage of psychotheism--that is, monotheism--was the original\nbasis for the philosophy of the world, and that all other forms are\ndegeneracies from that primitive and perfect state. If there be such a\nman left, to him what I have to say about philosophy is blasphemy.\n\nAgain, all students of comparative philosophy, or comparative mythology,\nor comparative religion, as you may please to approach this subject from\ndifferent points of view, recognize that there is something else; that\nthere are philosophies, or mythologies, or religions, not included in\nthe two great groups. All that something else has been vaguely called\nfetichism. I have divided it into two parts, _hecastotheism_ and\n_zo\u00f6theism_. The verity of zo\u00f6theism as a stage of philosophy rests on\nabundant evidence. In psychotheism it appears as _devilism_ in obedience\nto a well-known law of comparative theology, viz, that the gods of a\nlower and superseded stage of culture oftentimes become the devils of a\nhigher stage. So in the very highest stages of psychotheism we find\nbeast-devils. In Norse mythology, we have Fenris the wolf, and\nJormungandur the serpent. Dragons appear in Greek mythology, the bull is\nan Egyptian god, a serpent is found in the Zendavesta; and was there not\na scaly fellow in the garden of Eden? So common are these beast-demons\nin the higher mythologies that they are used in every literature as\nrhetorical figures. So we find, as a figure of speech, the great red\ndragon with seven heads and ten horns, with tail that with one brush\nsweeps away a third of the stars of heaven. And where-ever we find\nnature-worship we find it accompanied with beast-worship. In the study\nof higher philosophies, having learned that lower philosophies often\nexist side by side with them, we might legitimately conclude that a\nphilosophy based upon animal gods had existed previous to the\ndevelopment of physitheism; and philologic research, leads to the same\nconclusion. But we are not left to base this conclusion upon, an\ninduction only, for in the examination of savage philosophies we\nactually discover zo\u00f6theism in all its proportions. Many of the Indians\nof North America, and many of South America, and many of the tribes of\nAfrica, are found to be zo\u00f6theists. Their supreme gods are\nanimals--tigers, bears, wolves, serpents, birds. Having discovered this,\nwith a vast accumulation of evidence, we are enabled to carry philosophy\nback one stage beyond physitheism, and we can confidently assert that\nall the philosophies of civilization have come up through these three\nstages.\n\nAnd yet, there are fragments of philosophy discovered which are not\nzo\u00f6theistic, physitheistic, nor psychotheistic. What are they? We find\nrunning through all three stages of higher philosophy that phenomena are\nsometimes explained by regarding them as the acts of persons who do not\nbelong to any of the classes of gods found in the higher stages. We find\nfragments of philosophy everywhere which seem to assume that all\ninanimate nature is animate; that mountains and hills, and rivers and\nsprings, that trees and grasses, that stones, and all fragments of\nthings are endowed with life and with will, and act for a purpose. These\nfragments of philosophy lead to the discovery of hecastotheism.\nPhilology also leads us back to that state when the animate and the\ninanimate were confounded, for the holophrastic roots into which words\nare finally resolved show us that all inanimate things were represented\nin language as actors. Such is the evidence on which we predicate the\nexistence of hecastotheism as a veritable stage of philosophy. Unlike\nthe three higher stages, it has no people extant on the face of the\nglobe, known to be in this stage of culture. The philosophies of many of\nthe lowest tribes of mankind are yet unknown, and hecastotheism may be\ndiscovered; but at the present time we are not warranted in saying that\nany tribe entertains this philosophy as its highest wisdom.\n\n\n               _OUTGROWTH FROM MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY._\n\nThe three stages of mythologic philosophy that are still extant in the\nworld must be more thoroughly characterized, and the course of their\nevolution indicated. But in order to do this clearly, certain outgrowths\nfrom mythologic philosophy must be explained--certain theories and\npractices that necessarily result from, this philosophy, and that are\nintricately woven into the institutions of mankind.\n\n_Ancientism._--The first I denominate ancientism. Yesterday was better\nthan to-day. The ancients were wiser that we. This belief in a better\nday and a better people in the elder time is almost universal among\nmankind. A belief so widely spread, so profoundly entertained, must have\nfor its origin some important facts in the constitution or history of\nmankind. Let us see what they are.\n\nIn the history of every individual the sports and joys of childhood are\ncompared and contrasted with the toils and pains of old age. Greatly\nprotracted life, in savagery and barbarism, is not a boon to be craved.\nIn that stage of society where the days and the years go by with little\nor no provision for a time other than that which is passing, the old\nmust go down to the grave through poverty and suffering. In that stage\nof culture to-morrow's bread is not certain, and to-day's bread is often\nscarce. In civilization plenty and poverty live side by side; the palace\nand the hovel are on the same landscape; the rich and poor elbow each\nother on the same street; but in savagery plenty and poverty come with\nrecurring days to the same man, and the tribe is rich to-day and poor\nto-morrow, and the days of want come in every man's history; and when\nthey come the old suffer most, and the burden of old age is oppressive.\nIn youth activity is joy; in old age activity is pain. So wonder, then,\nthat old age loves youth, or that to-day loves yesterday, for the\ninstinct is born of the inherited experiences of mankind.\n\nBut there is yet another and more potent reason for ancientism. That\ntale is the most wonderful that has been most repeated, for the breath\nof speech is the fertilizer of story. Hence, the older the story the\ngreater its thaumaturgics. Thus, yesterday is greater than to-day by\nnatural processes of human exaggeration. Again, that is held to be most\ncertain, and hence most sacred, which has been most often affirmed. A\nBrahman was carrying a goat to the altar. Three thieves would steal it.\nSo they placed themselves at intervals along the way by which the pious\nBrahman would travel. When the venerable man came to the first thief he\nwas accosted: \"Brahman, why do you carry a dog?\" Now, a dog is an\nunclean beast which no Brahman must touch. And the Brahman, after\nlooking at his goat, said: \"You do err; this is a goat.\" And when the\nold man reached the second thief, again he was accosted: \"Brahman, why\ndo you carry a dog?\" So the Brahman put his goat on the ground, and\nafter narrowly scrutinizing it, he said: \"Surely this is a goat,\" and\nwent on his way. When he came to the third thief he was once more\naccosted: \"Brahman, why do you carry a dog?\" Then the Brahman, having\nthrice heard that his goat was a dog, was convinced, and throwing it\ndown, he fled to the temple for ablution, and the thieves had a feast.\n\nThe child learns not for himself, but is taught, and accepts as true\nthat which is told, and a propensity to believe the affirmed is\nimplanted in his mind. In every society some are wise and some are\nfoolish, and the wise are revered, and their affirmations are accepted.\nThus, the few lead the multitude in knowledge, and the propensity to\nbelieve the affirmed started in childhood is increased in manhood in the\ngreat average of persons constituting society, and these propensities\nare inherited from generation to generation, until we have a cumulation\nof effects.\n\nThe propagation of opinions by affirmation, the cultivation of the\npropensity to believe that which has been affirmed many times, let us\ncall _affirmatization_. If the world's opinions were governed only by\nthe principles of mythologic philosophy, affirmatization would become so\npowerful that nothing would be believed but the anciently affirmed. Men\nwould come to no new knowledge. Society would stand still listening to\nthe wisdom of the fathers. But the power of affirmatization is steadily\nundermined by science.\n\nAnd, still again, the institutions of society conform to its philosophy.\nThe explanations of things always includes the origin of human\ninstitutions. So the welfare of society is based on philosophy, and the\nvenerable sayings which constitute philosophy are thus held as sacred.\nSo ancientism is developed from accumulated life-experiences; by the\ngrowth of story in repeated narration; by the steadily increasing power\nof affirmatization, and by respect for the authority upon which the\ninstitutions of society are based; all accumulating as they come down\nthe generations. That we do thus inherit effects we know, for has it not\nbeen affirmed in the Book that \"the fathers have eaten grapes, and the\nchildren's teeth are set on edge\"? As men come to believe that the \"long\nago\" was better than the \"now,\" and the dead were better than the\nliving, then philosophy must necessarily include a theory of degeneracy,\nwhich is a part of ancientism.\n\n_Theistic Society._--Again, the actors in mythologic philosophy are\npersonages, and we always find them organized in societies. The social\norganization of mythology is always found to be essentially identical\nwith the social organization of the people who entertain the philosophy.\nThe gods are husbands and wives, and parents and children, and the gods\nhave an organized government. This gives us theistic society, and we\ncannot properly characterize a theism without taking its mythic society\ninto consideration.\n\n_Spiritism._--In the earliest stages of society of which we have\npractical knowledge by acquaintance with the people themselves, a belief\nin the existence of spirits prevails--a shade, an immaterial existence,\nwhich is the duplicate of the material personage. The genesis of this\nbelief is complex. The workings of the human mind during periods of\nunconsciousness lead to opinions that are enforced by many physical\nphenomena.\n\nFirst, we have the activities of the mind during sleep, when the man\nseems to go out from himself, to converse with his friends, to witness\nstrange scenes, and to have many wonderful experiences. Thus the man\nseems to have lived an eventful life, when his body was, in fact,\nquiescent and unconscious. Memories of scenes and activities in former\ndays, and the inherited memories of scenes witnessed and actions\nperformed by ancestors, are blended in strange confusion by broken and\ninverted sequences. Now and then the dream-scenes are enacted in real\nlife, and the infrequent coincidence or apparent verification makes deep\nimpression on the mind, while unfulfilled dreams are forgotten. Thus the\ndreams of sleepers are attributed to their immaterial duplicates their\nspirits. In many diseases, also, the mind seems to wander, to see sights\nand to hear sounds, and to have many wonderful experiences, while the\nbody itself is apparently unconscious. Sometimes, on restored health,\nthe person may recall these wonderful experiences, and during their\noccurrence the subject talks to unseen persons, and seems to have\nreplies, and to act, to those who witness, in such a manner that a\nsecond self--a spirit independent of the body--is suggested. When\ndisease amounts to long-continued insanity all of these effects are\ngreatly exaggerated, and make a deep impression upon all who witness the\nphenomena. Thus the hallucinations of fever-racked brains, and mad\nminds, are attributed to spirits.\n\nThe same conditions of apparent severance of mind and body witnessed in\ndreams and hallucinations are often produced artificially in the\npractice of _ecstasism_. In the vicissitudes of savage life, while\nlittle or no provision is made for the future, there are times when the\nsavage resorts to almost anything at hand as a means of subsistence, and\nthus all plants and all parts of plants, seed, fruit, flowers, leaves,\nbark, roots--anything in times of extreme want--may be used as food. But\nexperience soon teaches the various effects upon the human system which\nare produced by the several vegetable substances with which he meets,\nand thus the effect of narcotics is early discovered, and the savage in\nthe practice of his religion oftentimes resorts to these native drugs\nfor the purpose of producing an ecstatic state under which divination\nmay be performed. The practice of ecstasism is universal in the lower\nstages of culture. In times of great anxiety, every savage and barbarian\nseeks to know of the future. Through all the earlier generations of\nmankind, ecstasism has been practiced, and civilized man has thus an\ninherited appetite for narcotics, to which the enormous propensity to\ndrunkenness existing in all nations bears witness. When the great actor\nin his personation of Rip Van Winkle holds his goblet aloft and says,\n\"Here's to your health and to your family's, and may they live long and\nprosper,\" he connects the act of drinking with a prayer, and\nunconsciously demonstrates the origin of the use of stimulants. It may\nbe that when the jolly companion has become a loathsome sot, and his\nmind is ablaze with the fire of drink, and he sees uncouth beasts in\nhorrid presence, that inherited memories haunt him with visions of the\nbeast-gods worshipped by his ancestors at the very time when the\nappetite for stimulants was created.\n\nBut ecstasism is produced in other ways, and for this purpose the savage\nand barbarian often resorts to fasting and bodily torture. In many ways\nhe produces the wonderful state, and the visions of ecstasy are\ninterpreted as the evidence of spirits.\n\nMany physical phenomena serve to confirm this opinion. It is very late\nin philosophy when shadows are referred to the interception of the rays\nof the sun. In savagery and barbarism, shadows are supposed to be\nemanations from or duplicates of the bodies causing the shadows. And\nwhat savage understands the reflection of the rays of the sun by which\nimages are produced? They also are supposed to be emanations or\nduplications of the object reflected. No savage or barbarian could\nunderstand that the waves of the air are turned back, and sound is\nduplicated in an echo. He knows not that there is an atmosphere, and to\nhim the echo is the voice of an unseen, personage--a spirit. There is no\ntheory more profoundly implanted in early mankind than that of\nspiritism.\n\n_Thaumaturgics._--The gods of mythologic philosophies are created to\naccount for the wonders of nature. Necessarily they are a wonder-working\nfolk, and, having been endowed with these magical powers in all the\nhistories given in mythic tales of their doings on the earth, we find\nthem performing most wonderful feats. They can transform themselves;\nthey can disappear and reappear; all their senses are magical; some are\nendowed with a multiplicity of eyes, others have a multiplicity of ears;\nin Norse mythology the watchman on the rainbow bridge could hear the\ngrass grow, and wool on the backs of sheep; arms can stretch out to\ngrasp the distance, tails can coil about mountains, and all powers\nbecome magical. But the most wonderful power with which the gods are\nendowed is the power of will, for we find that they can think their\narrows to the hearts of their enemies; mountains are overthrown by\nthought, and thoughts are projected into other minds. Such are the\nthaumaturgics of mythologic philosophy.\n\n_Mythic tales._--Early man having created through the development of his\nphilosophy a host of personages, these gods must have a history. A part\nof that history, and the most important part to us as students of\nphilosophy, is created in the very act of creating the gods themselves.\nI mean that portion of their history which relates to the operations of\nnature, for the gods were created to account for those things. But to\nthis is added much else of adventure. The gods love as men love, and go\nin quest of mates. The gods hate as men hate, and fight in single combat\nor engage in mythic battles; and the history of these adventures\nimpelled by love and hate, and all other passions and purposes with\nwhich men are endowed, all woven into a complex tissue with their doings\nin carrying out the operations of nature, constitutes the web and woof\nof mythology.\n\n_Religion._--Again, as human welfare is deeply involved in the\noperations of nature, man's chief interest is in the gods. In this\ninterest religion originates. Man, impelled by his own volition, guided\nby his own purposes, aspires to a greater happiness, and endeavor\nfollows endeavor, but at every step his progress is impeded; his own\npowers fail before the greater powers of nature; his powers are pygmies,\nnature's powers are giants, and to him these giants are gods with wills\nand purposes of their own, and he sees that man in his weakness can\nsucceed only by allying himself with the gods. Hence, impelled by this\nphilosophy, man must have communion with the gods, and in this communion\nhe must influence them to work for himself. Hence, religion, which has\nto do with the relations which exist between the gods and man, is the\nlegitimate offspring of mythologic philosophy.\n\nThus we see that out of mythologic philosophy, as branches of the great\ntree itself, there grow ancientism, theistic society, spiritism,\nthaumaturgics, mythic tales, and religion.\n\n\n         _THE COURSE OF EVOLUTION IN MYTHOLOGIC PHILOSOPHY._\n\nI shall now give a summary characterization of zo\u00f6theism, then call\nattention to some of the relics of hecastotheism found therein, and\nproceed with a brief statement of the higher stages of theism. The\napparent and easily accessible is studied first. In botany, the trees\nand the conspicuous flowering plants of garden, field, and plain were\nfirst known, and then all other plants were vaguely grouped as weeds;\nbut, since the most conspicuous phenogamous plants were first studied,\nwhat vast numbers of new orders, new genera, and new species have been\ndiscovered, in the progress of research, to the lowest cryptogams!\n\nIn the study of ethnology we first recognized the more civilized races.\nThe Aryan, Hamites, Shemites, and Chinese, and the rest were the weeds\nof humanity--the barbarian and savage, sometimes called Turanians. But,\nwhen we come carefully to study these lower people, what numbers of\nraces are discovered! In North America alone we have more than\nseventy-five--seventy-five stocks of people speaking seventy-five stocks\nof language, and some single stocks embracing many distinct languages\nand dialects. The languages of the Algonkian family are as diverse as\nthe Indo-European tongues. So are the languages of the Dakotans, the\nShoshonians, the Tinn\u00e9ans, and others; so that in North America we have\nmore than five hundred languages spoken to-day. Each linguistic stock is\nfound to have a philosophy of its own, and each stock as many branches\nof philosophy as it has languages and dialects. North America presents a\nmagnificent field for the study of savage and barbaric philosophies.\n\nThis vast region of thought has been explored only by a few adventurous\ntravelers in the world of science. No thorough survey of any part has\nbeen made. Yet the general outlines of North American philosophy are\nknown, but the exact positions, the details, are all yet to be filled\nin--as the geography of the general outline of North America is known by\nexploration, but the exact positions and details of topography are yet\nto be filled in as the result of careful survey. Myths of the Algonkian\nstock are found in many a volume of _Americana_, the best of which were\nrecorded by the early missionaries who came from Europe, though we find\nsome of them, mixed with turbid speculations, in the writings of\nSchoolcraft. Many of the myths of the Indians of the south, in that\nregion stretching back from the great Gulf, are known; some collected by\ntravelers, others by educated Indians.\n\nMany of the myths of the Iroquois are known. The best of these are in\nthe writings of Morgan, America's greatest anthropologist. Missionaries,\ntravelers, and linguists have given us a great store of the myths of the\nDakotan stock. Many myths of the Tinn\u00e9an also have been collected.\nPetitot has recorded a number of those found at the north, and we have\nin manuscript some of the myths of a southern branch--the Navajos.\nPerhaps the myths of the Shoshonians have been collected more thoroughly\nthan those of any other stock. These are yet unpublished, but the\nmanuscripts are in the library of the Bureau of Ethnology. Powers has\nrecorded many of the myths of various stocks in California, and the old\nSpanish writings give us a fair collection of the Nahuatlan myths of\nMexico, and Rink has presented an interesting volume on the mythology of\nthe Innuits; and, finally, fragments of mythology have been collected\nfrom nearly all the tribes of North America, and they are scattered\nthrough thousands of volumes, so that the literature is vast. The brief\ndescription which I shall give of zo\u00f6theism is founded on a study of the\nmaterials which I have thus indicated.\n\nAll these tribes are found in the higher stages of savagery, or the\nlower stages of barbarism, and their mythologies are found to be\nzo\u00f6theistic among the lowest, physitheistic among the highest, and a\ngreat number of tribes are found in a transition state: for zo\u00f6theism is\nfound to be a characteristic of savagery, and physitheism of barbarism,\nusing the terms as they have been defined by Morgan. The supreme gods of\nthis stage are animals. The savage is intimately associated with\nanimals. From them he obtains the larger part of his clothing, and much\nof his food, and he carefully studies their habits and finds many\nwonderful things. Their knowledge and skill and power appear to him to\nbe superior to his own. He sees the mountain-sheep fleet among the\ncrags, the eagle soaring in the heavens, the humming-bird poised over\nits blossom-cup of nectar, the serpents swift without legs, the salmon\nscaling the rapids, the spider weaving its gossamer web, the ant\nbuilding a play-house mountain--in all animal nature he sees things too\nwonderful for him, and from admiration he grows to adoration, and the\nanimals become his gods.\n\nAncientism plays an important part in this zo\u00f6theism. It is not the\nanimals of to-day whom the Indians worship, but their progenitors--their\nprototypes. The wolf of to-day is a howling pest, but that wolf's\nancestor--the first of the line--was a god. The individuals of every\nspecies are supposed to have descended from an ancient being--a\nprogenitor of the race; and so they have a grizzly-bear god, an\neagle-god, a rattlesnake-god, a trout-god, a spider-god--a god for every\nspecies and variety of animal.\n\nBy these animal gods all things were established. The heavenly bodies\nwere created and their ways appointed, and when the powers and\nphenomena of nature are personified the personages are beasts, and all\nhuman institutions also were established by the ancient animal-gods.\n\nThe ancient animals of any philosophy of this stage are found to\nconstitute a clan or _gens_--a body of relatives, or _consanguinei_ with\ngrandfathers, fathers, sons, and brothers. In _Ute_ theism, the ancient\n_To-g\u00f3-\u00e4v_, the first rattlesnake is the grandfather, and all the\nanimal-gods are assigned to their relationships. Grandfather _To-g\u00f3-\u00e4v_,\nthe wise, was the chief of the council, but _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_, the ancient\nwolf, was the chief of the clan.\n\nThere were many other clans and tribes of ancient gods with whom these\nsupreme gods had dealings, of which hereafter; and, finally, each of\nthese ancient gods became the progenitor of a new tribe, so that we have\na tribe of bears, a tribe of eagles, a tribe of rattlesnakes, a tribe of\nspiders, and many other tribes, as we have tribes of Utes, tribes of\nSioux, tribes of Navajos; and in that philosophy tribes of animals are\nconsidered to be co\u00f6rdinate with tribes of men. All of these gods have\ninvisible duplicates--spirits--and they have often visited the earth.\nAll of the wonderful things seen in nature are done by the animal-gods.\nThat elder life was a magic life; but the descendants of the gods are\ndegenerate. Now and then as a medicine-man by practicing sorcery can\nperform great feats, so now and then there is a medicine-bear, a\nmedicine-wolf, or a medicine-snake that can work magic.\n\nOn winter nights the Indians gather about the camp-fire, and then the\ndoings of the gods are recounted in many a mythic tale. I have heard the\nvenerable and impassioned orator on the camp-meeting stand rehearse the\nstory of the crucifixion, and have seen the thousands gathered there\nweep in contemplation of the story of divine suffering, and heard their\nshouts roll down the forest aisles as they gave vent to their joy at the\ncontemplation of redemption. But the scene was not a whit more dramatic\nthan another I have witnessed in an evergreen forest of the Rocky\nMountain region, where a tribe was gathered under the great pines, and\nthe temple of light from the blazing fire was walled by the darkness of\nmidnight, and in the midst of the temple stood the wise old man,\ntelling, in simple savage language, the story of _Ta-wats_, when he\nconquered the sun and established the seasons and the days. In that\npre-Columbian time, before the advent of white men, all the Indian\ntribes of North America gathered on winter nights by the shores of the\nseas where the tides beat in solemn rhythm, by the shores of the great\nlakes where the waves dashed against frozen beaches, and by the banks of\nthe rivers flowing ever in solemn mystery--each in its own temple of\nillumined space--and listened to the story of its own supreme gods, the\nancients of time.\n\nReligion, in this stage of theism, is sorcery. Incantation, dancing,\nfasting, bodily torture, and ecstasism are practiced. Every tribe has\nits potion or vegetable drug, by which the ecstatic state is produced,\nand their venerable medicine-men see visions and dream dreams. No\nenterprise is undertaken without consulting the gods, and no evil\nimpends but they seek to propitiate the gods. All daily life, to the\nminutest particular, is religious. This stage of religion is\ncharacterized by fetichism. Every Indian is provided with his charm or\nfetich, revealed to him in some awful hour of ecstasy produced by\nfasting, or feasting, or drunkenness, and that fetich he carries with\nhim to bring good luck, in love or in combat, in the hunt or on the\njourney. He carries a fetich suspended to his neck, he ties a fetich to\nhis bow, he buries a fetich under his tent, he places a fetich under his\npillow of wild-cat skins, he prays to his fetich, he praises it, or\nchides it; if successful, his fetich receives glory; if he fail, his\nfetich is disgraced. These fetiches may be fragments of bone or shell,\nthe tips of the tails of animals, the claws of birds or beasts, perhaps\ndried hearts of little warblers, shards of beetles, leaves powdered and\nheld in bags, or crystals from the rocks--anything curious may become a\nfetich. Fetichism, then, is a religious means, not a philosophic or\nmythologic state. Such are the supreme gods of the savage, and such the\ninstitutions which belong to their theism. But they have many other\ninferior gods. Mountains, hills, valleys, and great rocks have their own\nspecial deities--invisible spirits--and lakes, rivers, and springs are\nthe homes of spirits. But all these have animal forms when in proper\n_person\u00e6_. Yet some of the medicine-spirits can transform themselves,\nand work magic as do medicine-men. The heavenly bodies are either\ncreated personages or ancient men or animals translated to the sky. And,\nlast, we find that ancestors are worshipped as gods.\n\nAmong all the tribes of North America with which we are acquainted\ntutelarism prevails. Every tribe and every clan has its own protecting\ngod, and every individual has his _my god_. It is a curious fact that\nevery Indian seeks to conceal the knowledge of his _my god_ from all\nother persons, for he fears that, if his enemy should know of his\ntutelar deity, he might by extraordinary magic succeed in estranging\nhim, and be able to compass his destruction through his own god.\n\nIn this summary characterization of zo\u00f6theism, I have necessarily\nsystematized my statements. This, of course, could not be done by the\nsavage himself. He could give you its particulars, but could not group\nthose particulars in any logical way. He does not recognize any system,\nbut talks indiscriminately, now of one, now of another god, and with him\nthe whole theory as a system is vague and shadowy, but its particulars\nare vividly before his mind, and the certainty with which he entertains\nhis opinions leaves no room to doubt his sincerity.\n\nBut there is yet another phase of theism discovered. Sometimes a\nparticular mountain, or hill, or some great rock, some waterfall, some\nlake, or some spring receives special worship, and is itself believed to\nbe a deity. This seems to be a relic of hecastotheism. Fetichism, also,\nseems to have come from that lower grade, and all the minor deities, the\nspirits of mountains and hills and forest, seem to have been derived\nfrom that same stage, but with this development, that the things\nthemselves are not worshipped, but their essential spirits.\n\nFrom zo\u00f6theism, as described, to physitheism the way is long. Gradually,\nin the progress of philosophy, animal gods are dethroned and become\ninferior gods or are forgotten; and gradually the gods of the\nfirmament--the sun, the moon, the stars--are advanced to supremacy; the\nclouds, the storms, the winds, day and night, dawn and gloaming, the\nsky, the earth, the sea, and all the various phases of nature perceived\nby the barbaric mind, are personified and deified and exalted to a\nsupremacy coordinate with the firmament gods; and all the gods of the\nlower stage that remain--animals, demons, and all men--belong to\ninferior tribes. The gods of the sky--the shining ones, those that soar\non bright wings, those that are clothed in gorgeous colors, those that\ncame from we know not where, those that vanish to the unknown--are the\nsupreme gods. We always find these gods organized in great tribes, with\nmighty chieftains who fight in great combats or lead their hosts in\nbattle, and return with much booty. Such is the theism of ancient\nMexico, such the theism of the Northland, and such the theism discovered\namong the ancient Aryans.\n\nFrom this stage to psychotheism the way is long, for evolution is slow.\nGradually men come to differentiate more carefully between good and\nevil, and the ethic character of their gods becomes the subject of\nconsideration, and the good gods grow in virtue, and the bad gods grow\nin vice. Their identity with physical objects and phenomena is gradually\nlost. The different phases or conditions of the same object or\nphenomenon are severed, and each is personified. The bad gods are\nbanished to underground homes, or live in concealment, from which they\nissue on their expeditions of evil. Still, all powers exist in these\ngods, and all things were established by them. With the growth of their\nmoral qualities no physical powers are lost, and the sports of the\nphysical bodies and phenomena become demons, subordinate to the great\ngods who preside over nature and human institutions.\n\nWe find, also, that these superior gods are organized in societies. I\nhave said the Norse mythology was in a transition state from physitheism\nto psychotheism. The Asas, or gods, lived in Asgard, a mythic communal\nvillage, with its Thing or Council, the very counterpart of the communal\nvillage of Iceland. Olympus was a Greek city.\n\nStill further in the study of mythologic philosophy we see that more and\nmore supremacy falls into the hands of the few, until monotheism is\nestablished on the plan of the empire. Then all of the inferior deities\nwhose characters are pure become ministering angels, and the inferior\ndeities whose characters are evil become devils, and the differentiation\nof good and evil is perfected in the gulf between heaven and hell. In\nall this time from zo\u00f6theism to monotheism, ancientism becomes more\nancient, and the times and dynasties are multiplied. Spiritism is more\nclearly defined, and spirits become eternal; mythologic tales are\ncodified, and sacred books are written; divination for the result of\namorous intrigue has become the prophecy of immortality, and\nthaumaturgics is formulated as the omnipresent, the omnipotent, the\nomniscient--the infinite.\n\nTime has failed me to tell of the evolution of idolatry from fetichism,\npriestcraft from sorcery, and of their overthrow by the doctrines that\nwere uttered by that voice on the Mount. Religion, that was fetichism\nand ecstasism and sorcery, is now the yearning for something better,\nsomething purer, and the means by which this highest state for humanity\nmay be reached, the ideal worship of the highest monotheism, is \"in\nspirit and in truth.\" The steps are long from _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_, the\nancient of wolves, by Zeus, the ancient of skies, to Jehovah, the\n\"Ancient of Days.\"\n\n\n                         _MYTHIC TALES._\n\nIn every Indian tribe there is a great body of story lore--tales\npurporting to be the sayings and doings, the history, of the gods. Every\ntribe has one or more persons skilled in the relation of these\nstories--preachers. The long winter evenings are set apart for this\npurpose. Then the men and women, the boys and girls, gather about the\ncamp-fire to listen to the history of the ancients, to a chapter in the\nunwritten bible of savagery. Such a scene is of the deepest interest. A\ncamp-fire of blazing pine or sage boughs illumines a group of dusky\nfaces intent with expectation, and the old man begins his story, talking\nand acting; the elders receiving his words with reverence, while the\nyounger persons are played upon by the actor until they shiver with fear\nor dance with delight. An Indian is a great actor. The conditions of\nIndian life train them in natural sign language. Among the two hundred\nand fifty or three hundred thousand Indians in the United States, there\nare scores of languages, so that often a language is spoken by only a\nfew hundred or a few score of people; and as a means of communication\nbetween tribes speaking different languages, a sign language has grown\nup, so that an Indian is able to talk all over--with the features of his\nface, his hands and feet, the muscles of his body; and thus a skillful\npreacher talks and acts; and, inspired by a theme which treats of the\ngods, he sways his savage audience at will. And ever as he tells his\nstory he points a moral--the mythology, theology, religion, history, and\nall human duties are taught. This preaching is one of the most important\ninstitutions of savagery. The whole body of myths current in a tribe is\nthe sum total of their lore--their philosophy, their miraculous history,\ntheir authority for their governmental institutions, their social\ninstitutions, their habits and customs. It is their unwritten bible.\n\n\n    _THE CIN-A\u00da-\u00c4V BROTHERS DISCUSS MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE TO THE PEOPLE._\n\nOnce upon a time the _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_ brothers met to consult about the\ndestiny of the _U-in-k\u00e1-rets_. At this meeting the younger said:\n\"Brother, how shall these people obtain their food? Let us devise some\ngood plan for them. I was thinking about it all night, but could not see\nwhat would be best, and when the dawn came into the sky I went to a\nmountain and sat on its summit, and thought a long time; and now I can\ntell you a good plan by which they can live. Listen to your younger\nbrother. Look at these pine trees; their nuts are sweet; and there is\nthe _us_, very rich; and there is the apple of the cactus, full of juice;\non the plain you see the sunflower, bearing many seeds--they will be\ngood for the nation. Let them have all these things for their food, and\nwhen they have gathered a store they shall put them in the ground, or\nhide them in the rocks, and when they return they shall find abundance,\nand having taken of them as they may need, shall go on, and yet when\nthey return a second time there shall still be plenty; and though they\nreturn many times, as long as they live the store shall never fail; and\nthus they will be supplied with abundance of food without toil.\" \"Not\nso,\" said the elder brother, \"for then will the people, idle and\nworthless, and having no labor to perform, engage in quarrels, and\nfighting will ensue, and they will destroy each other, and the people\nwill be lost to the earth; they must work for all they receive.\" Then\nthe younger brother answered not, but went away sorrowing.\n\nThe next day he met the elder brother and accosted him thus: \"Brother,\nyour words were wise; let the _U-in-k\u00e1-rets_ work for their food.\nBut how shall they be furnished with honey-dew? I have thought all night\nabout this, and when the dawn came into the sky I sat on the summit of\nthe mountain and did think, and now I will tell you how to give them\nhoney-dew: Let it fall like a great snow upon the rocks, and the women\nshall go early in the morning and gather all they may desire, and they\nshall be glad.\" \"No,\" replied the elder brother, \"it will not be good,\nmy little brother, for them to have much and find it without toil; for\nthey will deem it of no more value than dung, and what we give them for\ntheir pleasure will only be wasted. In the night it shall fall in small\ndrops on the reeds, which they shall gather and beat with clubs, and\nthen will it taste very sweet, and having but little they will prize it\nthe more.\" And the younger brother went away sorrowing, but returned the\nnext day and said: \"My brother, your words are wise; let the women\ngather the honey-dew with much toil, by beating the reeds with flails.\nBrother, when a man or a woman, or a boy or a girl, or a little one\ndies, where shall he go? I have thought all night about this, and when\nthe dawn came into the sky I sat on the top of the mountain and did\nthink. Let me tell you what to do: When a man dies, send him back when\nthe morning returns, and then will all his friends rejoice.\" \"Not so,\"\nsaid the elder; \"the dead shall return no more.\" The little brother\nanswered him not, but, bending his head in sorrow, went away.\n\nOne day the younger _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_ was walking in the forest, and saw\nhis brother's son at play, and taking an arrow from his quiver slew the\nboy, and when he returned he did not mention what he had done. The\nfather supposed that his boy was lost, and wandered around in the woods\nfor many days, and at last found the dead child, and mourned his loss\nfor a long time.\n\nOne day the younger _Cin-a\u00fa-\u00e4v_ said to the elder, \"You made the law\nthat the dead should never return. I am glad that you were the first to\nsuffer.\" Then the elder knew that the younger had killed his child, and\nhe was very angry and sought to destroy him, and as his wrath increased\nthe earth rocked, subterraneous groanings were heard, darkness came on,\nfierce storms raged, lightning flashed, thunder reverberated through the\nheavens, and the younger brother fled in great terror to his father,\n_Ta-vwots'_, for protection.\n\n\n                          _ORIGIN OF THE ECHO._\n\n_I'-o-wi_ (the turtle dove) was gathering seeds in the valley, and her\nlittle babe slept. Wearied with carrying it on her back, she laid it\nunder the _ti-h\u00f3-pi_ (sage bush) in care of its sister, _O-h\u00f3-tcu_\n(the summer yellow bird). Engaged in her labors, the mother wandered\naway to a distance, when a _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ (a witch) came and said to\nthe little girl, \"Is that your brother?\" and _O-h\u00f3-tcu_ answered, \"This\nis my sister,\" for she had heard that witches preferred to steal boys,\nand did not care for girls. Then the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ was angry and\nchided her, saying that it was very naughty for girls to lie; and she\nput on a strange and horrid appearance, so that _O-h\u00f3-tcu_ was stupefied\nwith fright; then the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ ran away with the boy, carrying\nhim, to her home on a distant mountain. Then she laid him down on the\nground, and, taking hold of his right foot, stretched the baby's leg\nuntil it was as long as that of a man, and she did the same to the other\nleg; then his body was elongated; she stretched his arms, and, behold,\nthe baby was as large as a man. And the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ married him and\nhad a husband, which she had long desired; but, though he had the body\nof a man, he had the heart of a babe, and knew no better than to marry a\nwitch.\n\nNow, when _I'-o-wi_ returned and found not her babe under the\n_ti-h\u00f3-pi_, but learned from _O-h\u00f3-tcu_ that it had been stolen by\na _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_, she was very angry, and punished her daughter very\nseverely. Then she went in search of the babe for a long time, mourning\nas she went, and crying and still crying, refusing to be comforted,\nthough all her friends joined her in the search, and promised to revenge\nher wrongs.\n\nChief among her friends was her brother, _Kwi'-na_, (the eagle), who\ntraveled far and wide over all the land, until one day he heard a\nstrange noise, and coming near he saw the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ and _U'-ja_\n(the sage cock), her husband, but he did not know that this large man\nwas indeed the little boy who had been stolen. Yet he returned and\nrelated to _I'-o-wi_ what he had seen, who said: \"If that is indeed my\nboy, he will know my voice.\" So the mother came near to where the\n_ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ and _U'-ja_ were living, and climbed into a cedar tree,\nand mourned and cried continually. _Kwi'-na_ placed himself near by on\nanother tree to observe what effect the voice of the mother would have\non _U'-ja_, the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits'_ husband. When he heard the cry of his\nmother, _U'-ja_ knew the voice, and said to the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_, \"I\nhear my mother, I hear my mother, I hear my mother,\" but she laughed at\nhim, and persuaded him to hide.\n\nNow, the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ had taught _U'-ja_ to hunt, and a short time\nbefore he had killed a mountain sheep, which was lying in camp. The\nwitch emptied the contents of the stomach, and with her husband took\nrefuge within; for she said to herself, \"Surely, _I'-o-wi_ will never\nlook in the paunch of a mountain sheep for my husband.\" In this retreat\nthey were safe for a long time, so that they who were searching were\nsorely puzzled at the strange disappearance. At last _Kwi'-na_ said,\n\"They are hid somewhere in the ground, maybe, or under the rocks; after\na long time they will be very hungry and will search for food; I will\nput some in a tree so as to tempt them.\" So he killed a rabbit and put\nit on the top of a tall pine, from which he trimmed the branches and\npeeled the bark, so that it would be very difficult to climb; and he\nsaid, \"When these hungry people come out they will try to climb that\ntree for food, and it will take much time, and while the\n_ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ is thus engaged we will carry _U'-ja_ away.\" So they\nwatched some days, until the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ was very hungry, and her\nbaby-hearted husband cried for food; and she came out from their hiding\nplace and sought for something to eat. The odor of the meat placed on\nthe tree came to her nostrils, and she saw where it was and tried to\nclimb up, but fell back many times; and while so doing _Kwi'-na_, who\nhad been sitting on a rock near by and had seen from where she came, ran\nto the paunch which had been their house, and taking the man carried him\naway and laid him down under the very same _ti-h\u00f3-pi_ from which\nhe had been stolen; and behold! he was the same beautiful little babe\nthat _I'-o-wi_ had lost.\n\nAnd _Kwi'-na_ went off into the sky and brought back a storm, and caused\nthe wind to blow, and the rain to beat upon the ground, so that his\ntracks were covered, and the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ could not follow him; but\nshe saw lying upon the ground near by some eagle feathers, and knew well\nwho it was that had deprived her of her husband, and she said to\nherself, \"Well, I know _Kwi'-na_ is the brother of _I'-o-wi_; he is a\ngreat warrior and a terrible man; I will go to _To-go'-a_ (the\nrattlesnake), my grandfather, who will protect me and kill my enemies.\"\n\n_To-go'-a_ was enjoying his midday sleep on a rock, and as the\n_ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ came near her grandfather awoke and called out to her,\n\"Go back, go back; you are not wanted here; go back!\" But she came on\nbegging his protection; and while they were still parleying they heard\n_Kwi'-na_ coming, and _To-go'-a_ said, \"Hide, hide!\" But she knew not\nwhere to hide, and he opened his mouth and the _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ crawled\ninto his stomach. This made _To-go'-a_ very sick and he entreated her to\ncrawl out, but she refused, for she was in great fear. Then he tried to\nthrow her up, but could not, and he was sick nigh unto death. At last,\nin his terrible retchings, he crawled out of his own skin, and left the\n_ts\u00f3-a-vwits_ in it, and she, imprisoned there, rolled about and hid\nin the rocks. When _Kwi'-na_ came near he shouted, \"Where are you, old\n_ts\u00f3-a-vwits_? where are you, old _ts\u00f3-a-vwits_?\" She repeated his\nwords in mockery.\n\nEver since that day witches have lived in snake skins, and hide among\nthe rocks, and take great delight in repeating the words of passers by.\n\nThe white man, who has lost the history of these ancient people, calls\nthese mocking cries of witches domiciliated in snake skins \"echoes,\" but\nthe Indians know the voices of the old hags.\n\nThis is the origin of the echo.\n\n\n                          _THE SO'-K\u00dbS WAI'-\u00dbN-\u00c4TS._\n\n_T\u00fbm-pwi-nai'-ro-gwi-n\u00fbmp_, he who had a stone shirt, killed\n_Si-kor'_, (the crane,) and stole his wife, and seeing that she had\na child, and thinking it would be an incumbrance to them on their\ntravels, he ordered her to kill it. But the mother, loving the babe, hid\nit under her dress, and carried it away to its grandmother. And Stone\nShirt carried his captured bride to his own land.\n\nIn a few years the child grew to be a fine lad, under the care of his\ngrandmother, and was her companion wherever she went.\n\nOne day they were digging flag roots, on the margin of the river, and\nputting them in a heap on the bank. When they had been at work a little\nwhile, the boy perceived that the roots came up with greater ease than\nwas customary, and he asked the old woman the cause of this, but she did\nnot know; and, as they continued their work, still the reeds came up\nwith less effort, at which their wonder increased, until the grandmother\nsaid, \"Surely, some strange thing is about to transpire.\" Then the boy\nwent to the heap where they had been placing the roots, and found that\nsome one had taken them away, and he ran back, exclaiming, \"Grandmother,\ndid you take the roots away?\" And she answered, \"No, my child; perhaps\nsome ghost has taken them off; let us dig no more; come away.\"\n\nBut the boy was not satisfied, as he greatly desired to know what all\nthis meant; so he searched about for a time, and at length found a man\nsitting under a tree, whom he taunted with being a thief, and threw mud\nand stones at him, until he broke the stranger's leg, who answered not\nthe boy, nor resented the injuries he received, but remained silent and\nsorrowful and, when his leg was broken, he tied it up in sticks, and\nbathed it in the river, and sat down again under the tree, and beckoned\nthe boy to approach.\n\nWhen the lad came near, the stranger told him he had something of great\nimportance to reveal. \"My son,\" said he, \"did that old woman ever tell\nyou about your father and mother?\" \"No,\" answered the boy; \"I have never\nheard of them.\" \"My son, do you see these bones scattered on the ground?\nWhose bones are these?\" \"How should I know?\" answered the boy. \"It may\nbe that some elk or deer has been killed here.\" \"No,\" said the old man.\n\"Perhaps they are the bones of a bear;\" but the old man shook his head.\nSo the boy mentioned many other animals, but the stranger still shook\nhis head, and finally said, \"These are the bones of your father; Stone\nShirt killed him, and left him to rot here on the ground, like a wolf.\"\nAnd the boy was filled with indignation against the slayer of his\nfather. Then the stranger asked, \"Is your mother in yonder lodge?\" and\nthe boy replied, \"No.\" \"Does your mother live on the banks of this\nriver?\" and the boy answered, \"I don't know my mother; I have never seen\nher; she is dead.\" \"My son,\" replied the stranger, \"Stone Shirt, who\nkilled your father, stole your mother, and took her away to the shore of\na distant lake, and there she is his wife to-day.\" And the boy wept\nbitterly, and while the tears filled his eyes so that he could not see,\nthe stranger disappeared.\n\nThen the boy was filled with wonder at what he had seen and heard, and\nmalice grew in his heart against his father's enemy. He returned to the\nold woman, and said, \"Grandmother, why have you lied to me about my\nfather and mother?\" and she answered not, for she knew that a ghost had\ntold all to the boy. And the boy fell upon the ground weeping and\nsobbing, until he fell into a deep sleep, when strange things were told\nhim.\n\nHis slumber continued three days and three nights, and when he awoke he\nsaid to his grandmother, \"I am going away to enlist all nations in my\nfight,\" and straightway he departed.\n\n(Here the boy's travels are related with many circumstances concerning\nthe way he was received by the people, all given in a series of\nconversations, very lengthy; so they will be omitted.)\n\nFinally, he returned in advance of the people whom he had enlisted,\nbringing with him _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_, the wolf, and _To-go'-a_, the\nrattlesnake. When the three had eaten food, the boy said to the old\nwoman: \"Grandmother, cut me in two.\" But she demurred, saying she did\nnot wish to kill one whom she loved so dearly. \"Cut me in two,\" demanded\nthe boy, and he gave her a stone ax which he had brought from a distant\ncountry, and with a manner of great authority he again commanded her to\ncut him in two. So she stood before him, and severed him in twain, and\nfled in terror. And lo! each part took the form of an entire man, and\nthe one beautiful boy appeared as two, and they were so much alike no\none could tell them apart.\n\nWhen the people or natives whom the boy had enlisted came pouring into\nthe camp, _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ and _To-go'-a_ were engaged in telling them of\nthe wonderful thing that had happened to the boy, and that now there\nwere two; and they all held it to be an augury of a successful\nexpedition to the land of Stone Shirt. And they started on their\njourney.\n\nNow the boy had been told in the dream of his three days' slumber of a\nmagical cup, and he had brought it home with him from his journey among\nthe nations, and the _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_ carried it between\nthem, filled with water. _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ walked on their right and\n_To-go'-a_ on their left, and the nations followed in the order in which\nthey had been enlisted. There was a vast number of them, so that when\nthey were stretched out in line it was one day's journey from the front\nto the rear of the column.\n\nWhen they had journeyed two days and were far out on the desert all the\npeople thirsted, for they found no water, and they fell down upon the\nsand groaning, and murmuring that they had been deceived, and they\ncursed the One-Two.\n\nBut the _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_ had been told in the wonderful dream\nof the suffering which would be endured and that the water which they\ncarried in the cup was only to be used in dire necessity, and the\nbrothers said to each other: \"Now the time has come for us to drink the\nwater.\" And when one had quaffed of the magical bowl, he found it still\nfull, and he gave it to the other to drink, and still it was full; and\nthe One-Two gave it to the people, and one after another did they all\ndrink, and still the cap was full to the brim.\n\nBut _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ was dead, and all the people mourned, for he was a\ngreat man. The brothers held the cup over him, and sprinkled him with\nwater, when he arose and said: \"Why do you disturb me? I did have a\nvision of mountain brooks and meadows, of cane where honey-dew was\nplenty.\" They gave him the cup, and he drank also; but when he had\nfinished there was none left. Refreshed and rejoicing they proceeded on\ntheir journey.\n\nThe next day, being without food, they were hungry, and all were about\nto perish; and again they murmured at the brothers, and cursed them. But\nthe _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_ saw in the distance an antelope,\nstanding on an eminence in the plain, in bold relief against the sky;\nand _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ knew it was the wonderful antelope with many eyes,\nwhich Stone Shirt kept for his watchman; and he proposed to go and kill\nit, but _To-go'-a_ demurred, and said: \"It were better that I should go,\nfor he will see you and run away.\" But the _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_\ntold Cin'-au'-\u00e4v to go; and he started in a direction away to the left\nof where the antelope was standing, that he might make a long detour\nabout some hills, and come upon him from the other side. _To-go'-a_ went\na little way from camp, and called to the brothers: \"Do you see me?\" and\nthey answered they did not. \"Hunt for me;\" and while they were hunting\nfor him, the rattlesnake said: \"I can see you; you are doing\"--so and\nso, telling them what they were doing; but they could not find him.\n\nThen, the rattlesnake came forth, declaring: \"Now you know I can see\nothers, and that I cannot be seen when I so desire. _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ cannot\nkill that antelope, for he has many eyes, and is the wonderful watchman\nof Stone Shirt; but I can kill him, for I can go where he is and he\ncannot see me.\" So the brothers were convinced, and permitted him to go;\nand he went and killed the antelope. When _Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ saw it fall, he\nwas very angry, for he was extremely proud of his fame as a hunter, and\nanxious to have the honor of killing this famous antelope, and he ran up\nwith the intention of killing _To-go'-a_; but when he drew near, and saw\nthe antelope was fat, and would make a rich feast for the people, his\nanger was appeased. \"What matters it,\" said he, \"who kills the game,\nwhen we can all eat it?\"\n\nSo all the people were fed in abundance, and they proceeded on their\njourney.\n\nThe next day the people again suffered for water, and the magical cup\nwas empty; but the _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_, having been told in\ntheir dream what to do, transformed themselves into doves, and flew away\nto a lake, on the margin of which was the home of Stone Shirt.\n\nComing near to the shore, they saw two maidens bathing in the water; and\nthe birds stood and looked, for the maidens were very beautiful. Then\nthey flew into some bushes, near by, to have a nearer view, and were\ncaught in a snare which the girls had placed for intrusive birds. The\nbeautiful maidens came up, and, taking the birds out of the snare,\nadmired them very much, for they had never seen such birds before. They\ncarried them to their father, Stone Shirt, who said: \"My daughters, I\nvery much fear these are spies from my enemies, for such birds do not\nlive in our land\"; and he was about to throw them into the fire, when\nthe maidens besought him, with tears, that he would not destroy their\nbeautiful birds; but he yielded to their entreaties with much misgiving.\nThen they took the birds to the shore of the lake, and set them free.\n\nWhen the birds were at liberty once more, they flew around among the\nbushes, until they found the magical cup which they had lost, and taking\nit up, they carried it out into the middle of the lake and settled down\nupon the water, and the maidens supposed they were drowned.\n\nThe birds, when they had filled their cup, rose again, and went back to\nthe people in the desert, where they arrived just at the right time to\nsave them with the cup of water, from which each drank; and yet it was\nfull until the last was satisfied, and then not a drop remained.\n\nThe brothers reported that they had seen Stone Shirt and his daughters.\n\nThe next day they came near to the home of the enemy, and the brothers,\nin proper person, went out to reconnoiter. Seeing a woman gleaning\nseeds, they drew near, and knew it was their mother, whom Stone Shirt\nhad stolen from _Si-kor'_, the crane. They told her they were her\nsons, but she denied it, and said she had never had but one son; but the\nboys related to her their history, with the origin of the two from one,\nand she was convinced. She tried to dissuade them from making war upon\nStone Shirt, and told them that no arrow could possibly penetrate his\narmor, and that he was a great warrior, and had no other delight than in\nkilling his enemies, and that his daughters also were furnished with\nmagical bows and arrows, which they could shoot so fast that the arrows\nwould fill the air like a cloud, and that it was not necessary for them\nto take aim, for their missiles went where they willed; they _thought_ the\narrows to the hearts of their enemies; and thus the maidens could kill\nthe whole of the people before a common arrow could be shot by a common\nperson. But the boys told her what the spirit had said in the long\ndream, and had promised that Stone Shirt should be killed. They told her\nto go down to the lake at dawn, so as not to be endangered by the\nbattle.\n\nDuring the night, the _So'-k\u00fbs Wai'-\u00fbn-\u00e4ts_ transformed themselves\ninto mice, and proceeded to the home of Stone Shirt, and found the\nmagical bows and arrows that belonged to the maidens, and with their\nsharp teeth they cut the sinew on the backs of the bows, and nibbled the\nbowstrings, so that they were worthless, while _To-go'-a_ hid himself\nunder a rock near by.\n\nWhen dawn came into the sky, _T\u00fbm-pwi-nai'-ro-gwi-n\u00fbmp_, the\nStone Shirt man, arose and walked out of his tent, exulting in his\nstrength and security, and sat down upon the rock under which _To-go'-a_\nwas hiding; and he, seeing his opportunity, sunk his fangs into the\nflesh of the hero. Stone Shirt sprang high into the air, and called to\nhis daughters that they were betrayed, and that the enemy was near; and\nthey seized their magical bows, and their quivers filled with magical\narrows, and hurried to his defense. At the same time, all the nations\nwho were surrounding the camp rushed down to battle. But the beautiful\nmaidens, finding their weapons were destroyed, waved back their enemies,\nas if they would parley; and, standing for a few moments over the body\nof their slain father, sang the death-song, and danced the death-dance,\nwhirling in giddy circles about the dead hero, and wailing with despair,\nuntil they sank down and expired.\n\nThe conquerers buried the maidens by the shores of the lake; but\n_T\u00fbm-pwi-nai'-ro-gwi-n\u00fbmp_ was left to rot, and his bones to\nbleach on the sands, as he had left _Si-kor'_.\n\n\n                   _TA-VWOTS' HAS A FIGHT WITH THE SUN._\n\n_Ta-vwots'_, the little rabbit, was wont to lie with his back to the sun\nwhen he slept. One day he thus slept in camp while his children played\naround him. After a time they saw that his back was smoking, and they\ncried out \"What is the matter with your back, father?\" Startled from his\nsleep, he demanded to know the cause of the uproar. \"Your back is\ncovered with sores and full of holes,\" they replied. Then _Ta-vwots'_\nwas very angry, for he knew that _Ta'-vi_, the sun, had burned him;\nand he sat down by the fire for a long time in solemn mood, pondering on\nthe injury and insult he had received. At last rising to his feet, he\nsaid, \"My children I must go and make war upon _Ta'-vi_.\" And\nstraightway he departed.\n\nNow his camp was in the valley of the Mo-a-pa.[1] On his journey he came\nto a hill, and standing on its summit he saw in a valley to the east a\nbeautiful stretch of verdure, and he greatly marveled at the sight and\ndesired to know what it was. On going down to the valley he found a\ncorn-field, something he had never before seen, and the ears were ready\nfor roasting. When he examined them, he saw that they were covered with\nbeautiful hair, and he was much astonished. Then he opened the husk and\nfound within soft white grains of corn, which he tasted. Then he knew\nthat it was corn and good to eat. Plucking his arms full he carried them\naway, roasted them on a fire, and ate until he was filled.\n\nNow, when he had done all this, he reflected that he had been stealing,\nand he was afraid; so he dug a hole in which to hide himself.\n\n_Cin-au'-\u00e4v_ was the owner of this field, and when he walked\nthrough and saw that his corn had been stolen, he was exceedingly wroth,\nand said, \"I will slay this thief _Ta-vwots'_; I will kill him, I will\nkill him.\" And straightway he called his warriors to him and made search\nfor the thief, but could not find him, for he was hid in the ground.\nAfter a long time they discovered the hole and tried to shoot\n_Ta-vwots'_ as he was standing in the entrance, but he blew their arrows\nback. This made _Cin-au'-\u00e4v's_ people very angry and they shot\nmany arrows, but _Ta-vwots'_' breath as a warder, against them all. Then,\nwith one accord, they ran to snatch him up with their hands, but, all in\nconfusion, they only caught each others fists, for with agile steps\n_Ta-vwots'_ dodged into his retreat. Then they began to dig, and said\nthey would drag him out. And they labored with great energy, all the\ntime taunting him with shouts and jeers. But _Ta-vwots'_ had a secret\npassage from the main chamber of his retreat which opened by a hole\nabove the rock overhanging the entrance where they were at work.\n\n    [1] A stream in Southeastern Nevada.\n\nWhen they had proceeded with this digging until they were quite under\nground, _Ta-vwots'_, standing on the rock above, hurled the magical ball\nwhich he was accustomed to carry with him, and striking the ground above\nthe diggers, it caved the earth in, and they were all buried. \"Aha,\"\nsaid he, \"why do you wish to hinder me on my way to kill the Sun?\n_A'-nier ti-tik'-a-n\u00fbmp kwaik-ai'-gar_\" (fighting is my eating\ntool I say; that's so!), and he proceeded on his way musing. \"I have\nstarted out to kill; vengeance is my work; every one I meet will be an\nenemy. It is well; no one shall escape my wrath.\"\n\nThe next day he saw two men making arrow-heads of hot rocks, and drawing\nnear he observed their work for a time from a position where he could\nnot be seen. Then stepping forth, he said: \"Let me help you\"; and when\nthe rocks were on the fire again and were hot to redness he said: \"Hot\nrocks will not burn me.\" And they laughed at him. \"May be you would have\nus believe that you are a ghost?\" \"I am not a ghost,\" said he, \"but I am\na better man than you are. Hold me on these hot rocks, and if I do not\nburn you must let me do the same to you.\" To this they readily agreed,\nand when they had tried to burn him on the rocks, with his magic breath\nhe kept them away at a distance so slight they could not see but that\nthe rocks did really touch him. When they perceived that he was not\nburned they were greatly amazed and trembled with fear. But having made\nthe promise that he should treat them in like manner, they submitted\nthemselves to the torture, and the hot rocks burned them until with\ngreat cries they struggled to get free but unrelenting _Ta-vwots'_ held\nthem until the rocks had burned through their flesh into their entrails,\nand so they died. \"Aha,\" said _Ta-vwots'_, \"lie there until you can get\nup again. I am on my way to kill the Sun. _A'-nier ti-tik'-a-n\u00fbmp\nkwaik-ai'-gar._\" And sounding the war-whoop he proceeded on his way.\n\nThe next day he came to where two women were gathering berries in\nbaskets, and when he sat down they brought him some of the fruit and\nplaced it before him. He saw there were many leaves and thorns among the\nberries, and he said, \"Blow these leaves and thorns into my eyes,\" and\nthey did so, hoping to blind him; but with his magic breath he kept them\naway, so that they did not hurt him.\n\nThen the women averred that he was a ghost. \"I am no ghost,\" said he,\n\"but a common person; do you not know that leaves and thorns cannot hurt\nthe eye? Let me show you;\" and they consented and were made blind. Then\n_Ta-vwots'_ slew them with his _pa-r\u00fbm'-o-kwi_. \"Aha,\" said he, \"you\nare caught with your own chaff. I am on my way to kill the Sun. This is\ngood practice. I must learn how. _A'-nier ti-tik'-a-n\u00fbmp\nkwaik-ai'-gar_.\" And sounding the war-whoop he proceeded on his way.\n\nThe next day he saw some women standing on the Hurricane Cliff, and as\nhe approached he heard them say to each other that they would roll rocks\ndown upon his head and kill him as he passed; and drawing near he\npretended to be eating something, and enjoying it with great gusto; so\nthey asked him what it was, and he said it was something very sweet, and\nthey begged that they might be allowed to taste of it also. \"I will\nthrow it up to you,\" said he; \"come to the brink and catch it.\" When\nthey had done so, he threw it up so that they could not quite reach it,\nand he threw it in this way many times, until, in their eagerness to\nsecure it, they all crowded too near the brink, fell, and were killed.\n\"Aha,\" said he, \"you were killed by your own eagerness. I am on my way\nto kill the Sun. _A'-nier ti-tik'-a-n\u00fbmp kaiwk-ai'-gar_.\" And\nsounding the war-whoop he passed on.\n\nThe following day he saw two women fashioning water-jugs, which are made\nof willow-ware like baskets and afterwards lined with pitch. When afar\noff he could hear them converse, for he had a wonderful ear. \"Here comes\nthat bad _Ta-vwots'_,\" said they; \"how shall we destroy him?\" When he\ncame near, he said, \"What was that you were saying when I came up?\" \"Oh,\nwe were only saying, 'here comes our grandson,'\"[2] said they. \"Is that\nall?\" replied _Ta-vwots'_, and looking around, he said, \"Let me get into\nyour water-jug\"; and they allowed him to do so. \"Now braid the neck.\"\nThis they did, making the neck very small; then they laughed with great\nglee, for they supposed he was entrapped. But with his magic breath he\nburst the jug, and stood up before them; and they exclaimed, \"You must\nbe a ghost!\" but he answered, \"I am no ghost. Do you not know that jugs\nwere made to hold water, but cannot hold men and women?\" At this they\nwondered greatly, and said he was wise. Then he proposed to put them in\njugs in the same manner, in order to demonstrate to them the truth of\nwhat he had said; and they consented. When he had made the necks of the\njugs and filled them with pitch, he said, \"Now, jump out,\" but they\ncould not. It was now his turn to deride; so he rolled them about and\nlaughed greatly, while their half-stifled screams rent the air. When he\nhad sported with them in this way until he was tired, he killed them\nwith his magical ball. \"Aha,\" said he, \"you are bottled in your own\njugs. I am on my way to kill the Sun; in good time I shall learn how.\n_A'-nier ti-tik'-a-n\u00fbmp kaiwk-ai'-gar._\" And sounding the war-whoop\nhe passed on.\n\nThe next day he came upon _Kwi'-ats_, the bear, who was digging a hole\nin which to hide, for he had heard of the fame of _Ta-vwots'_, and was\nafraid. When the great slayer came to _Kwi'-ats_ he said, \"Don't fear,\nmy great friend; I am not the man from whom to hide. Could a little\nfellow like me kill so many people?\" And the bear was assured. \"Let me\nhelp you dig,\" said _Ta-vwots'_, that we may hide together, for I also\nam fleeing from the great destroyer. So they made a den deep in the\nground, with its entrance concealed by a great rock. Now, _Ta-vwots'_\nsecretly made a private passage from the den out to the side of the\nmountain, and when the work was completed the two went out together to\nthe hill-top to watch for the coming of the enemy. Soon _Ta-vwots'_\npretended that he saw him coming, and they ran in great haste to the\nden. The little one outran the greater, and going into the den, hastened\nout again through his secret passage.\n\n    [2] This is a very common term of endearment used by elder to younger\n    persons.\n\nWhen _Kwi'-ats_ entered he looked about, and not seeing his little friend\nhe searched for him for some time, and still not finding him, he\nsupposed that he must have passed him on the way, and went out again to\nsee if he had stopped or been killed. By this time _Ta-vwots'_ had\nperched himself on the rock at the entrance of the den, and when the\nhead of the bear protruded through the hole below he hurled his\n_pa-r\u00fbm'-o-kwi_ and killed him. \"Aha,\" said _Ta-vwots'_, \"I greatly\nfeared this renowned warrior, but now he is dead in his own den. I am\ngoing to kill the Sun. _A'-nier ti'-tik'-a'-n\u00fbmp kwaik-ai'-gar_.\" And\nsounding the war-whoop he went on his way.\n\nThe next day he met _Ku-mi'-a-p\u00f6ts_, the tarantula. Now this knowing\npersonage had heard of the fame of _Ta-vwots'_, and determined to\noutwit him. He was possessed of a club with such properties that,\nalthough it was a deadly weapon when used against others, it could not\nbe made to hurt himself, though wielded by a powerful arm.\n\nAs _Ta-vwots'_ came near, _Ku-mi'-a-p\u00f6ts_ complained of having a\nheadache; moaning and groaning, he said there was an _u-nu'-pits_, or\nlittle evil spirit, in his head, and he asked _Ta-vwots'_ to take the\nclub and beat it out. _Ta-vwots'_ obeyed, and struck with all his\npower, and wondered that _Ku-mi'-a-p\u00f6ts_ was not killed; but he urged\n_Ta-vwots'_ to strike harder. At last _Ta-vwots'_ understood the\nnature of the club, and guessed the wiles of _Ku-mi'-a-p\u00f6ts_, and raising\nthe weapon as if to strike again, he dexterously substituted his magic\nball and slew him. \"Aha,\" said he, \"that is a blow of your own seeking,\n_Ku-mi'-a-p\u00f6ts_. I am on my way to kill the Sun; now I know that I can do\nit. _A'-nier ti'-tik'-a'-n\u00fbmp kwaik-ai'-gar._\" And sounding the\nwar-whoop he went on his way.\n\nThe next day he came to a cliff which is the edge or boundary of the\nworld on the east, where careless persons have fallen into unknown\ndepths below. Now to come to the summit of this cliff it is necessary to\nclimb a mountain, and _Ta-vwots'_ could see three gaps or notches in\nthe mountain, and he went up into the one on the left; and he demanded\nto know of all the trees which where standing by of what use they were.\nEach one in turn praised its own qualities, the chief of which in every\ncase was its value as fuel.[3] _Ta-vwots'_ shook his head and went\ninto the center gap and had another conversation with the trees,\nreceiving the same answer. Finally he went into the third gap--that on\nthe right. After he had questioned all the trees and bushes, he came at\nlast to a little one called _yu'-i-nump_, which modestly said it had no\nuse, that it was not even fit for fuel. \"Good,\" said _Ta-vwots'_, and\nunder it he lay down to sleep.\n\n    [3] Several times I have heard this story, and invariably the dialogues\n    held by _Ta-vwots'_ with the trees are long and tedious, though, the\n    trees evince some skill in their own praise.\n\nWhen the dawn came into the sky _Ta-vwots'_ arose and stood on the brink\noverhanging the abyss from which the Sun was about to rise. The instant\nit appeared he hurled his _pa-r\u00fbm'-o-kwi_, and, striking it full in\nthe face, shattered it into innumerable fragments, and these fragments\nwere scattered over all the world and kindled a great conflagration.\n_Ta-vwots'_ ran and crept under the _yu'-i-nump_ to obtain protection.\nAt last the fire waxed very hot over all the world, and soon _Ta-vwots_\nbegan to suffer and tried to ran away, but as he ran his toes were\nburned off, and then slowly, inch by inch, his legs, and then his body,\nso that he walked on his hands, and these were burned, and he walked on\nthe stumps of his arms, and these were burned, until there was nothing\nleft but his head. And now, having no other means of progression, his\nhead rolled along the ground until his eyes, which were much swollen,\nburst by striking against a rock, and the tears gushed out in a great\nflood which spread out over all the land and extinguished the\nconflagration.\n\nThe _Uinta Utes_ add something more to this story, namely, that the\nflood from his eyes bore out new seeds, which were scattered over all\nthe world. The _Ute_ name for seed is the same as for eye.\n\nThose animals which are considered as the descendants of _Ta-vwots'_ are\ncharacterized by a brown patch back of the neck and shoulders, which is\nattributed to the singeing received by him in the great fire.\n\nThe following apothegms are derived from this story:\n\n\"You are buried in the hole which you dug for yourself.\"\n\n\"When you go to war every one you meet is an enemy; kill all.\"\n\n\"You were caught with your own chaff.\"\n\n\"Don't get so anxious that you kill yourself.\"\n\n\"You are bottled in your own jugs.\"\n\n\"He is dead in his own den.\"\n\n\"That is a blow of your own seeking.\"\n\n\n\n\n                          TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE\n\nSome UTF-8 characters have been downgraded to their Latin-1\nequivalents; for the accurate representation please see the HTML\nor UTF-8 file.\n\n                        PRINTER'S ERRORS FIXED:\n\n\"dext\" changed to \"next\"--The next day, being without food...\n\"decedents\" changed to \"descendants\"--The descendants of these people...\n\"philosopic\" changed to \"philosophic\"--...great philosophic question","title":"Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 17-56","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":19487}