34 [66] TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



the whole land from east to west, the people settled, while on the south- 

 ern shore the animals (then in human shape) took their abode. 



The ocean monster, in revenge for the abstraction of his cubs, caused 

 the waters to rise again in the fourth world, compelling the inhabitants 

 to a speedy removal. The badger delved a hole up to the fifth world, and 

 the locust, climbing up through it, saw there four swans: a black swan 

 in the east, a blue swan in the south, a yellow swan in the west, a white 



swan in the north The lake which they found there was speedily 



drained by the genius in the dark east, but its bottom remained soft and 

 muddv. So they prayed to the four winds, the daik wind of the east, the 

 blue wind of the south, the yellow wind of the west, and the white wind 

 of the north. And a great gale arose and blew for four days, and on the 

 fifth day the ground was so dry that they could walk out. 



It is from the west that the snow comes in the winter, the warm 



thawing breezes in the spring, and the soft rains in the summer to nour- 

 ish the maize and the grass. Therefore, when the Navajos are in need 

 they pray to Estsanaltehi, the goddess of the Sunset Land. First Man 

 and First Woman were banished to the east, and swore undying hatred to 

 the Ndvajo people; cherefore all evils come from the east, small-pox and 

 other diseases, war, and the white intruder. 



The distinction between an upper and a lower world is still 

 traceable in Iroquois myths,* and also forms the foundation of 

 the Greek speculations embodied in such terms as the empyreu. 

 ?na, the cycles and epicycles o/ the pla?iets crossing the crystalline 

 skies, the seven heavens of the Orientals, and the Hebrew raki- 

 ah^ translated in the Vulgata by firinamenUmi (Genesis i. 3), or 

 " solid matter, solid ground." 



The Northern Lights were (to the Iroquois) the indication of coming 

 events. Were they white, frosty weather would ensue; if yellow, disease 

 and pestilence; while red predicted war and bloodshed; and a mottled 

 sky in the spring-time was ever the harbinger of a good corn season. f 



To understand this passage fully, it must be remembered that 

 the color-beams and rays of polar lights are to the Indians the 

 spirits of the deceased (as are also the shooting stars, fire-balls, 

 meteors and meteoric showers), and that the rapid changes which 

 these multicolored lights are undergoing are called by them the 

 dance of the dead. Now, to the spirits of the dead prophetic 

 powers are ascribed among all nations, especially when they ap- 

 pear in dreams. 



* Elias Johnson, " Legends, etc., of the Iroquois," p. 40, 41. 

 f ''Myths of the Iroquois," in Amer. Antiq. iv. 35. 



