IxXXViii INTRODUCTION. 



are fast sealed up in snow and ice, and no longtr capable 

 of listening.^ 



It is obvious that the Indian mind has never seriously 

 occupied itself with any of the higher themes of thought. 

 The beings of its belief are not impersonations of the 

 forces of Nature, the courses of human destiny, or the 

 movements of human intellect, will, and passion. In 

 the midst of Nature, the Indian knew nothing of her 

 laws. His perpetual reference of her phenomena to 

 occult agencies forestalled inquiry and precluded induc- 

 tive reasoning. If the wind blew with violence, it was 

 because the water-lizard, which makes the wind, had 

 crawled out of his pool ; if the lightning was sharp and 

 frequent, it was because the young of the thunder-bird 

 were restless in their nest ; if a blight fell upon the corn, 

 it was because the Corn Spirit was angry ; and if the 

 beavers were shy and difficult to catch, it was because 



1 The prevalence of this fancy among the Algonquins in the remote 

 parts of Canada is well estabhshed. The writer found it also among the 

 extreme western hands of the Dahcotah. He tried, in the month of July, 

 to persuade an old chief, a noted story-teller, to tell him some of the 

 tales; but, though abundantly loquacious in respect to his own adven- 

 tures, and even his dreams, the Indian obstinately refused, saying that 

 winter was the time for the tales, and that it was bad to tell them in 

 summer. 



Mr. Schoolcraft has published a collection of Algonquin tales, under 

 the title of Algic Researches. Most of them were translated by Ids wife, 

 an educated Ojibwa half-breed. This book is perhaps the best of Mr. 

 Schoolcraft's works, though its value is much impaired by the want of a 

 literal rendering, and the introduction of decorations which savor more 

 of a popular monthly magazhie than of an Indian wigwam. Mrs. East- 

 man's interesting Legends of the Sioux (Dahcotah) is not free from the 

 same defect. Other tales are scattered throughout the works of Mr. 

 Schoolcraft and various modern writers. Some are to be found in tho 

 works of Lafitau and the other Jesuits. But few of the Iroquois legends 

 have been printed, though a considerable number have been written down. 

 The singular History of the Five Nations, by the old Tuscarora Indian,. 

 Cusick, gives the substance of some of them. Others will be found in 

 Clark's History of Onondaga. 



