.Tantauv 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE ♦ 



00 



Here we see plainly in the first myth that Hiawatha is 

 the Sun, who engages in a conflict with the West (the 

 sunset region ). He follows the West to the brink of the 

 workl (twilight), and is apparently devoured by some 

 monster typical of night. Hiawatha does not )'ea|)pear 

 until the seagulls set him free, and the first light of 

 (lawn appears shining through the ribs of Nahraa. He 

 is at last released and driven ashore near his lodge iu 

 tiie east, where he reappears iu all his glory and is 

 proclaimed victorious over the night. 



A myth not unlike the above is told among the Ojiliways 

 about the Little oNlonedo. The latter is swallowed by a 

 great fish, and is cut out again by his sister.* 



The Chippeway Indians believe that Michabo resides 

 towards the east, and in the formula of the nieda craft, 

 when the winds are invoked to the medicine lodge, the east 

 Ls summoned iu his name. The door opens in that direc- 

 tion, and there, at the edge of the earth, where the sun 

 rLses, on the shore of the infinite ocean that surrounds the 

 land, he has his house, and sends his luminaries forth on 

 their daily journey. 



According to an Algonkin legend, Michabo was one of 

 four brothers, representing the north, south, east, and 

 west. They are named resjaectively Wabun, Kabun, Kabi- 

 bonokka, and Shawano.f 



In Longfellow's " Hiawatha," these four winds are intro- 

 duced. Mudjekeewis, after a great encounter with Mishe- 

 Mowka, the Great Bear of the mountains, overcomes him. The 

 people proclaimed him ''Father of the AVinds of Heaven": — 



For himself he kept the West WinrI, 

 Gave the others to his children ; 

 Unto Wabun gave the East Wind. 



Young and beautiful was Wabun, 

 He it was who brought the morning, 

 He it was whose silver arrows 

 Chased the dark o'er liill and valley : 

 He it was whose cheeks were painted 

 With the brightest streaks of crimson, 

 And whose voice awoke the village. 

 Called the deer and called the hunter. 



He felt lonely in the sky, '■ th(uigh the birds sang gailv to 

 him." But, gazing earthward, he perceived a lovely maiden. 

 He wooed her with his smile of sun.shine, and, folding her in 

 his robes of crimson, changed her into a star — 



And for ever in the heavens 

 They are seen tOBether walking — 

 Wabun and the Wabun-Annung, 

 Wabun and the Star of Morning. 



Captain ArgoU, who visited the Potomac in IGIO, heard the 

 following from a chief: — "We have five gods in all. Our 

 chief god appears often unto us in the form of a mighty 

 hare" (compare with the Michabo myth); "the other four 

 have no visible shape, but are, indeed, the four winds which 

 keep the four corners of the earth. "j 



In the Iroquois traditions the four winds were imprisoned 

 by their Lord in the cave, or " Lodgings of Dawn." This 

 recalls the account given of the Latmian Cave, or " Cave of 



* A tradition exists among the inhabitants of Melanesia, according 

 to which their god Qat tries to get Xight for the peoplp, who had 

 tired of perpetual day. He sent fowls to bring the Dawn, after the 

 departure of Night should make it necessary. Next day the Sun 

 crawled away west, and Night came creeping up from the sea. 

 "This is Night," said Qat. "Sit down, and, when you feci some- 

 thing in your eyes, lie down and keep quiet. ' So they went to 

 sleep When night had lasted long enongh, Qat took a piece of red 

 obsidian, and cut the dar/tness, and the Dawn came out (Prof. 

 Fiske, "Custom and Myth," p. 50). So that the idea of cutting 

 darkness is not peculiar to the Indian mvthclogy. 



t Brinton, " Myths of the New World,'^' p. ICl. X •^*''/- 



Night," in which Endymion (the sun) was supposed to sleep 

 at night.* The Thlinket tribes in their traditions and 

 myths '■ mention two heroes or gods, who existed " at the 

 beginning of time, .and procured for mankind all the ad- 

 vant.ages Ihej' now enjoy. The names of these beings or 

 demi-gods were Yeshl or Yehl, the ancestor of the Haven 

 clan, and Khenookh, the ancestor of the Wolf family .f 



Yeshl was the creator uf all beings and things, and gavo 

 the sun, moon, and stars their places. His dwelling-place 

 is neare.st where the east wind Ijlows (called by the Thlinkets 

 " Ssannakke "). The Thlinkets imagine this jduce to be at 

 the source of the River Nass, which enters the sea near the 

 British boundary. The traditions are " that there was a 

 time when the world was not, and man lived in the dark. 

 A Thlinket had a wife and sister, and he loved them so 

 much that he would not let them work. He let his wife sit 

 the whole long day in the cabin, or outside upon a little 

 hill. She always had eight little birds about her with a 

 bright red colour, and if she spoke with any other Thlinket 

 the birds flew away and informed the husband." He became 

 so jealous, "that every time he went to the woods to build 

 canoes — in which art he was a great master — he placed his 

 wife in a box, locking the same." J: 



Probably the hu.sband in this story is the sun, and his 

 wife the dawn. He leaves home in the morning, and in 

 the bright light of the sun the dawn disappears ; or, 

 according to the Thlinket myth, remains in her cabin at 

 rest. At evening the gorgeous rays of sunset are seen 

 reaching across the sky towards the sun, and these are the 

 eight birds, or messengers, who are bidding the husband, or 

 sun, to hasten home. 



The Stakkin Thlinket tells a different story. At one 

 time the sun, moon, and stars were concealed in three sepa- 

 rate boxes, by a rich and powerful chief, who guarded his 

 treasures so well that nobody could touch them. Yeshl 

 heard of this, and determined to get them. By a series of 

 devices he obtained the boxes which contained the moon and 

 the stars, and set the latter in the sky. He could not 

 obtain the sun so easily, but, transforming himself into a 

 raven, he flew away to the sky. On the way he heard human 

 voices, but could not see the people, because there was no 

 light on earth. He asked the people to tell him where to 

 place the light, but they said : — '' You will only cheat us — 

 you are not Yeshl, who alone can give us light." In order 

 to convince the doubters, Ye.shl raised the lid of the box, 

 and at once the sun shone from the heavens in all its 

 splendour.§ 



Here we see that Yeshl is the dawn, who releases the sun 

 from night ; the box represents his imprisonment in the 

 darkness. 



Among the Iroquois traditions an account is given by 

 Father Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary, who resided among 

 the Hurons in 1G26, of loskeha and Tawiscara — meaning 

 the White One and Dark One, in the Oneida dialect. The 

 brothers quarrel, and the White One, or loskeha, conquering 

 his brother, returned to his grandmother, and " established 

 his lodge in the far ea.st, on the borders of the great ocean, 

 whence the stin comes." In time he became the father of 

 mankind, and guardian of the Iroquois.ll 



In the Algonkin legends of New England the account of 

 Glooskap closely resembles the above. Glooskap engages in 

 a terrible conflict with his twin-brother Malsumis or Wolf. 

 " He sought him in the deep dark forest and smote him, so 



* " Chips from a German Workshop.' Mas Miiller. Vol. II., p. 85. 

 t " Report of the I'opalation, Industries, and Resources of 

 Alaska," p. 166. By Ivan Retroff. Rublished at Washington, 188i. 

 t Ilnd.-p. 172. 



!) "Reports of .Alaska," p. 17.3. 188-t. 

 IJ Brinton, " Myths of the New World," p. 184. 



