michelson: fox ritualistic myths 209 



been greenhouse individuals. The question naturally arises, 

 then, as to what extent the accepted belief that elongation is 

 generally more rapid at night than in the day may be due to the 

 fact that most experments on periodicity have been conducted 

 under greenhouse or laboratory conditions. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. — Ritualistic origin myths of the Fox Indi- 

 ans. 1 Truman Michelson, Bureau of American Ethnol- 

 ogy. 



The Fox Indians of Iowa, who are probably the most primi- 

 tive of all Algonkins within the borders of the United States, 

 have an extremely extensive folk-lore and mythology. Their 

 long systematic myths accounting for existing ceremonies are 

 especially noteworthy, and it should be mentioned that the par- 

 ticular type of these myths is thus far unique. 



To go into some details: The plots are all of one type. The 

 hero is usually poor and sometimes ill-treated, but fasts and in 

 a vision sees his supernatural helper or helpers. Ordinarily he 

 has a vision of them four times and receives a little instruction 

 each time. He then goes home, informs the people, and holds 

 the ceremony in which he has been instructed. The ceremony 

 is the one in actual use today. The songs are the existing ones, 

 as are some of the set speeches. Usually the people subse- 

 quently are attacked by their enemies or there is a famine. In 

 any case the hero always succors them. 



Such topics as taboos, facial paintings, localizations in clan- 

 feasts, descriptions of drums, positions in dancing, the number 

 of ceremonial attendants and the gentes to which they belong, 

 songs, set speeches, contents of sacred packs, and instruction re- 

 garding exogamy of gentes come up incidentally in these ritualis- 

 tic origin myths. In so far as the actual ceremonies can rarely, 

 if ever be witnessed in their entirety, owing to the conservative 

 character of the Fox Indians, these myths are extremely valu- 

 able for strictly ethnological studies. 



] Summary of an address delivered before the Anthropological Society of Wash- 

 ington, February 15, 1916. Published with the permission of the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



