1898-99. | PRIMITIVE NATURE STUDY. 319 
“ Here the immediate operations of Nature are indulged with a wider 
play. Just as the sacred mountains and forests, the sacred sea and its 
cliffs, protest against any denial of the sentiments of Nature among the 
races that have no literature, so do their myths and hymns testify to 
the deep impression made by Nature. The connection of many a little 
poem with the songs of birds is obvious. Light and darkness, day and 
night, arouse feelings of pleasure and discomfort ; white, red and green 
embody benevolent natural forces and demons; black, those that are 
dreaded. Sunrise and sunset, storm, rainbow, the glow of evening, are 
most adapted to find a lyric echo where sun and fire are objects of 
adoration. ; 
“ What light and darkness are for the eye, sound and silence are for 
the ear. The rumble of thunder, the muffled roar of beasts of prey, 
contrasted with the clear ripple of the spring, the plash of the waves, and 
the song of birds. In aseries of pictures, copious though limited by the 
constraint of customary expression, the poetry and pictorial art of the 
natural races continue to express this. On one side of the mysterious 
Papuan bull-roarer, the object of religious devotion, is depicted the 
resting moth, on the other the whirring moth: what a simple and 
impressive picture language !” (p. 70.) 
Of the Eskimo, Dr. Brinton tells us (Ess. of Amer., p. 289): 
“Some of their poetical productions reveal a true and deep appreciation 
of the marvellous, the impressive and the beautiful scenes which their 
land and climate present. Prominent features in their tales and chants 
are the flashing variegated aurora, whose shooting streamers they fable 
to be the souls of departed heroes ; the milky way, gleaming in the still 
Arctic night, which they regard as the bridge by which the souls of the 
good and brave mount to the place of joy; the vast, glittering, soundless 
snow-fields, and the mighty, crashing glacier, splintering from his shore- 
ward cliffs the ice mountains which float down to the great ocean.” 
As an example of Eskimo appreciation of natural scenery, Dr. 
Brinton selects a song (from Rink’s collection), dealing with the play of 
the clouds about Mt. Koonak (four thousand feet high), at Arsut, near 
Frederickshaab : 
‘**T look toward the south to greet Mt. Koonak, 
To greet Mt. Koonak there to the south ; 
I watch the clouds that gather round him ; 
I contemplate their shining brightness ; 
They spread abroad upon great Koonak, 
They climb up his sea-ward flanks ; 
