FABLE AND FOLKLORE n 



local species, which was inhabited by the soul of their 

 heroic "first man." The Osage Indians of Kansas, for 

 example, say that as far back as they can conceive of 

 time their ancestors were alive, but had neither bodies 

 nor souls. They existed beneath the lowest of the four 

 "upper worlds/' and at last migrated to the highest, where 

 they obtained souls. Then followed travels in which they 

 searched for some source whence they might get human 

 bodies, and at last asked the question of a redbird sitting 

 on her nest. She replied: "I can cause your children to 

 have human bodies from my own." She explained that 

 her wings would be their arms, her head their head, and 

 so on through a long list of parts, external and internal, 

 showing herself a good comparative anatomist. Finally 

 she declared: "The speech (or breath) of children will 

 I bestow on your children." 5 



Such is the story of how humanity reached the earth, 

 according to one branch of the Osages : other gentes 

 also believe themselves descended from birds that came 

 down from an upper world. Dozens of similar cases 

 might be quoted, of which I will select one because of its 

 curious features. The Seri, an exclusive and backward 

 tribe inhabiting the desert-like island Tiburon, in the Gulf 

 of California, ascribe the creation of the world, and of 

 themselves in particular, to the Ancient of Pelicans, a 

 mythical fowl of supernal wisdom and melodious song — 

 an unexpected poetic touch! — who first raised the earth 

 above the primeval waters. This laf; point is in con- 

 formity with the general belief that a waste of waters 

 preceded the appearance, by one or another miraculous 

 means well within the redman's range of experience, of 

 a bit of land; and it is to be observed that this original 

 patch of earth, whether fixed or floating, was enlarged 



