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1898-99. | PRIMITIVE NATURE STUDY. 
the singers of their characteristic noises and movements make an 
intensely interesting nature-study drama. 
The totem-societies and animal-cults of many primitive tribes, in 
which the smallest and even the most insignificant actions of animals, 
birds, etc., are imitated in dance and ceremony with unvarying accuracy, 
and in which theparticipants are often masked and dressed to represent 
such animals, require even more detailed knowledge of animal life, habits 
and instincts, as recent studies of the animal-worship of the Pueblo 
Indians have abundantly shown. 
The synonymy of animal-nomenclature and_ plant-designation in 
the songs and sayings which sometimes belong to the folk-speech, as well 
as to the language of the shaman or the initiate is worth careful study, 
and a dictionary of such names and nick-names would be fruitful both 
for psychology and for nature-study. In the “ Magic Songs” of the 
Finns there is a surprising richness of these descriptive names. The 
Bear is called: The corpulent ; hulking fellow ; broad-forehead ; claw- 
footed one; evil soot; scanty-haired one; shaggy ; little shock ; dark 
gray-haired one; tangled ball; little hay-stack ; lovely shaggy coat ; 
splendid coat of hair; blue stumpy-tail ; honey-lover; honey-paws ; 
cunning one; horror of the land. The Catz is greybeard ; the Dog, woolly 
tail; the zg, downward carried snout ; the Sea/, round boy. The Wolf 
has many names: Jog, woolly-tail, hairy foot, hairy-nose, windy-throat, 
gad-about, crafty one, etc. The Sake is denounced as: Crafty one; 
dread one; evil one; evil pagan; useless wretch ; worm; worm of the 
earth; autumn worm; winter worm; Tuoni’s (god of death) grub, 
—the V7zper is striped back. The Lzzard is styled: Hiisi’s (devil) eye; 
fresh water herring on land ; water-sprat; courtyard sweepings ; ground 
sweepings; sweepings of Monala (god of death). The Raven is: 
Devourer ; bird of three Lempos (devils) ; the Pzke, water-monster ; the 
Wasp, evil bird. The Oak is named God’s tree; the #77, bushy top, 
honey-moist,honey-top (/olk-Lore, Vol. I., pp. 30-36, 37-45, 331-336, 
342-344.) 
In the secret languages of the angakok among the Eskimo and the 
shamans or sorcerers of North Siberian tribes, many much more compli- 
cated and suggestive names are employed to keep the knowledge of the 
creature invoked or besung from the ears of the people, riddles and like 
subterfuges being frequently resorted to to refrain from direct divul- 
gence. Primitive poetry, like that of the Arabs and other Oriental 
peoples, abounds in synonyms, and innumerable names are lavished upon 
things animate and inanimate, all perceptible qualities being exploited, 
