324 A Century of Science 



ing, intact ; and, as Mr. Curtin observes, it is to be 

 seen in the myths of the American Indians. As 

 long as a mythology remains intact it " puts its 

 imprint on the whole region to which it belongs." 

 Every rock, every spring, is the scene of some defi- 

 nite incident ; every hill has its mythical people, 

 who are as real to the narrators as the flesh-and- 

 blood population which one finds there. In this 

 whole world of belief and sentiment there is the 

 vigour of fresh life, and the country is literally 

 enchanted ground. But when, through the inva- 

 sion of alien peoples, there is a mingling and con- 

 flict of sacred stories, and new groups of ideas and 

 associations have partly displaced the old ones, so 

 that only the argument or general statement of the 

 ancient myth is retained, and perhaps even that 

 but partially, then " all precision and details with 

 reference to persons and places vanish; they be- 

 come indefinite ; are in some kingdom, some place, 

 nowhere in particular." There is this vague- 

 ness in the folk-tales of eastern and central Europe 

 as contrasted with those of Ireland. " Where there 

 was or where there was not," says the Magyar, 

 " there was in the world ; " or, if the Russian hero 

 goes anywhere, it is simply across forty-nine king- 

 doms, etc. ; " but in the Irish tales he is always a 

 person of known condition in a specified place" 



