258 FOSSIL MEN. 



who are Darkness and Light, or " Good mind " and 

 "Evil mind," and who introduce the knowledge of 

 good and evil on the earth. She afterwards bears a 

 daughter who has two sons,, the elder of whom, Yos- 

 keka, kills his brother, and afterwards becomes the 

 parent of mankind. Finally, Atahensic is deified as 

 the " Queen of Heaven/' with the moon as her em- 

 blem ; while Yoskeka also becomes a demi-god in the 

 other world, and the sun is his totem or emblematic 

 mark. In Hades, Atahensic, like the ancient Artemis, 

 in one at least of her functions, and like the Scandi- 

 navian Hela, becomes a guardian, and also a judge 

 and castigator of her children after death, while on 

 Yoskeka devolves the more beneficent function of 

 being their advocate and intercessor. This story, 

 which is but a specimen of this part of American 

 theology, as held in various forms by different tribes, 

 bears no remote resemblance to our own familiar nar- 

 rative of Eve and the Fall. But its significance is far 

 greater than this. It shows the connection of the 

 biblical Eve, the introducer of evil, and at the same 

 time the mother of the Kedeemer, who is the " seed 

 of the woman," with all those primitive idolatries in 

 which the first woman becomes the object of worship 

 as the Queen of Heaven and mother goddess ; and it 

 shows how natural is that superstition which in like 

 manner, in more modern times, transfers the adora- 

 tion of the Saviour to his mother. Alike in the Ata- 

 hensic of America, the two-horned Astarte of primeval 

 Syria, and the virgin queen of modern Borne, we have 



