62 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Another Navajo hymn is that to tlie thunder : 



" Thonah ! Thonah ! 

 There is a voice above, 

 The voice of the thunder. 

 Within the daric cloud 

 Again and again it sounds, 

 Thonah ! Thonah !" 



The Si);niish niissionai-ies found tlie now extinct Taenaas of the lower 



Mississippi in j)ossession of the following pleasing composition, cited by 



I)r. Brinton : 



" Tikaens, thou buildest a house, thou bringest thy wife to live in it. 

 Thou art married, Tikaens, thou art married. 

 Thou wilt become famous ; thy children will name thee among the elders. Think 



of Tikaens as an old man. 

 By what name is thy bride known ? Is she beautiful ? Are her eyes soft as the 



liglit of the moon ? Is she a strong woman ? 

 Didst thou understand her signs during the dance ? 

 I know not whether thou lovest her, Tikaens, 



What said the old man, her father, when thou askedst for his pretty daughter ? 

 What betrothal presents didst thou give ? 

 Rejoice, Tikaens ! Be glad, be happy ! 

 Build thyself a happy home, 

 This is the day of its building !" 



There are some still more poetical pieces than these that I might 

 quote, but there is no evidence of their ante-Columbian origin. In study- 

 ing the folk-lore and the rhythmical compositions of the Indians, one 

 cannot help observing the similarity of both to the poetical and prose 

 lore of Uncle Remus, a strange coincidence, for, save in the case of the 

 Black Caribs and the Sambos of Honduras, the negro and the Indian 

 have little in common. 8quier tells how these Sambos or Negro Indians 

 dance for hours, singing: 



" Shovel-nosed shark. 

 Grandmother, gnindmother ! 

 Shovel-nosed shark. 

 Grandmother !" 



For my part, I prefer Tikaens. 



Scenic representations were part of the religion of the American 

 Indians, as among the inhabitants of Southern India, Ceylon, and the 

 Malay Archipelago. As, in the iniddle ages, the miracle and mystery 

 plays were employed by ecclesiastics to familiarize the vulgar mind, slow 

 to reason abstractly, with the facts of redemption and pure living, so the 

 aborigines of this continent, under the guidance of their spiritual advisers, 

 performed, and in some places still perform, what may be called religious 

 plays which embody their religious or mythological traditions. The 

 hideous masks pictured in the Yakun Nattannawa and in the Kolan 

 Nattannawa, which set forth the devil masquerade of Ceylon, are repro- 

 duced among the natives of eastern Siberia, of the Aleutian Islands, 



