324 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
stated that it took him four years to learn all he knew.” (Amer. Anthr., 
Vole. pt.) 
Dr. Matthews notes also: “ The perfect uniformity with which they 
(songs) were repeated in most cases (by persons from widely distant - 
parts of the country) and the close approach to uniformity in all other 
cases, was wonderful.” 
The game of Késztce (hiding a stone in a moccasin) was originally 
invented and played by the primeval animals to settle the question 
whether it should be dark forever (as the night-animals desired it), or 
whether the sun should shine forever (as the day-animals wished). 
Around a huge fire they gambled until morning dawned and the 
animals fled to their several homes—the undecided game leaving the 
day and night alternating as at present, which seems to have been the 
original condition of things. Many of the animals bear on their bodies 
and limbs to-day marks which date from the grand game of Hésztce- 
“ The bear had lent his moccasins to be used in the game. They were 
therefore, partly buried in the ground. In his haste to be off, he put 
them on wrong—the right moccasin on the left foot, and vice versa ; 
this is why the bear's feet are now misshapen. His coat was then as 
black as midnight, but he dwelt on top of a high mountain and was so 
late in getting back to his lair that the red beams of the rising sun shone 
upon him, imparting their ruddy hue to the tips of his hairs, and thus it 
is that the bear’s hair is tipped with red to this day. 
“The home of the wood-rat, /é¢so,was a long way off,and_he ran so far 
and so fast to get there that he raised great blisters on his feet, and this 
accounts for the callosities we see now on the soles of the rat.” 
These are typical “ observation-myths,” of which, no doubt, hundreds 
could be obtained from this and other groups of songs. 
” 
. 
Time forbids the citation here of more than the “‘ Magpie Song 
““The magpie! the magpie! Here underneath 
In the white of his wings are the footsteps of morning. 
It dawns! it dawns !” 
and “the Badger Song”: 
“* Badger is lying down, badger is lying down, 
‘ Waurr,' [imit. of growl], he says, lying down ; 
With a white streak down his forehead, lying down.” 
The poetic and onomatopceic names of the animals, the imitation by 
