Copyright by E. W. Deming 



One of the decorations in Mr. Frederic C. Walcott's summer home in the Berkshire 



Hills, Norfolk, Connecticut. In the murals of this country house Mr. Deming has used the 



landscape and mythology of the immediate locality — a bit of the old time looking back 



one hundred and flfty years 



In collecting Indian myths he knew the difference between the old and the 

 transition myths. The Algonkin for instance have been under white influ- 

 ence for a hundred and fifty years and their myths have been greatly 

 changed. It is only a man who really understands the Indian that can 

 translate Indian mythology to carry a true meaning in the languages of 

 civilization. Working with this man for many years helped me to under- 

 stand the religion and poetic spirit of the red man and to appreciate old 

 Indian customs. 



But these old customs are practically gone. We cannot go out into the 

 field to-day and study them. We find only transition customs. Neither 

 are the oldtime customs obtained from books. All books on the Indian 

 are narratives and histories written from the white man's standpoint, pre- 

 senting but superficial ideas of ceremonial life. 



The Indian was in perfect harmony with his environment. The sun was 

 his father, the earth his mother, the animal his brother. Over all, the 

 Great Mystery ruled. The Indian's every move was influenced by his 

 religion. From the time a child was conceived, the mother's only thought 

 was of the coming warrior — living a pure and simple life, making her 

 appeal often to the Great Mystery in his behalf. When in his cradle, she 

 sang songs of his brothers, the birds and the animals, and by the time he 

 was ten years old he was instilled with a reverence and belief in the all 

 powerful Great Mystery. After this the boy never spoke of what was 

 sacred to him, yet the Great Mystery was always with him. When the 

 youth reached manhood after purifying himself in the sacred sweat lodge, 

 he went away from all of his kind to some solitary place and fasted with the 

 hope that the underground and underwater people would come to him, the 



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