538 MIGRATION AND THE FOOD QUE«T. 



Japanese stoue iiupleiuents are identical with the American in tech- 

 nique aud strikingly similar in shaj»e. Even the jesthetic forms are 

 wrought in precisely the same manner. It is well known that several 

 waves of aboriginal occupation preceded the present Mongol dynasty 

 in China, and students are waiting with interest to know more about 

 them and the j)aths by which they entered the celestial domain. 



XI. — RELIGION AjN'D FOLKLORE. 



I think that all American myths point to northern origin. They are 

 filled with stories of the sea; but there is little ground now, in the 

 infancy of the science of folklore and mythology, upon which to build 

 theories. 



I mention in passing the Easter Island images, the Xew Zealand 

 and other Polynesian wood carvings, and the general suggestion of the 

 Northwest toteai devices in the Japanese areas.^ 



Father Morice says that the western Ddne about Stuart Lake, in 

 British Columbia, have a tradition that "days were formerly so very 

 short that sewing the edge of a muskrat skin was all that one woman 

 could do between sunrise and sunset."^ Boas says that the Kwakiutl 

 on the Pacific coast of British Columbia tell of a i)laee Avhere the sun 

 does not shine, where there are no trees, and where peo^^le ride in 

 boats made of skins. These people tell of a place where the trees are 

 all hollow in the middle so that they carry water in the trunks. As 

 a matter of fact, though it may not count for much, the same tribe 

 make gashes in a plank and convert it into a box with invisible Joints 

 precisely as the Chinese work in bamboo. 



On the other hand, no northern tribe has the slightest conception 

 that they have relatives in the south. 



Boas, who has studied the west coast myths more than anyone else, 

 points to their Asiatic origin. 



XII. — THE TESTIMONY OF ETHNOGRAPHERS AND OTHERS. 



Finally, and I do not think that such cumulative evidence is to be 

 despised, all intelligent travelers are struck with the similarities exist- 

 ing between our west coast Indians and existing eastern Asiatics. It 

 is true that those who have noted these resemblances have resorted to 

 untenable theories to account for them, but false theory and good 

 emi)iric data are not incompatible. It is well known that oar Eskimo 

 have peopled a portion of northeastern Asia, following the dominating 

 instinct for aliment and comfort. The proposition I wish to defend is 

 that this close connection between the two continents has existed for 

 thousands of years, during which the contact between western Amer- 

 ica and eastern Asia was more and more close and extended and 



'Cf. J. G. Frazer, Toteuiism, Ecliub., 1887, Black. 

 '^Tr. Canad. Inst., Toronto, 1894, IV, page 12. 



