POWELL. ] STAGES OF PHILOSOPHY. 23 
Even the nursery rhymes are in contrast; the prattler in New York 
says: : 
2 Daffy down dilly 
Has come up to town, 
With a green petticoat 
“And a blue gown; . 
but in-savagery the outer and nether garments are not yet differentiated ; 
and more: blueand green are not ditterentiated, for the Indian has but one 
name for the two; the green grass and the blue heavens are of the same 
hue in the Indian tongue. But the nursery tales of Ka-ni-ga are of the 
animals, for the savages associate with the animals on terms of recog- 
nized equality; and this is what the prattler in Ka-ni-ga says: 
The poor little bee 
That lives in the tree, 
The poor little bee 
That lives in the tree, 
Has only one arrow 
In his quiver. 
The arts and industries of savagery and civilization are not in greater 
contrast than their philosophy. To fully present to you the condition 
of savagery, as illustrated in their philosophy, three obstacles appear, 
After all the years I have spent among the Indians in their mountain 
villages, I am not certain that I have sufficiently divorced myself from 
the thoughts and ways of civilization to properly appreciate their child- 
ish beliefs. The second obstacle subsists in your own knowledge of the 
methods and powers of nature, and the ways of civilized society; and 
when I attempt to tell you what an Indian thinks, I fear you will never 
fully forget what you know, and thus you will be led to give too deep a 
meaning to a savage explanation; or, on the other hand, contrasting an 
Indian concept with your own, the manifest absurdity will sound to you 
as an idle tale too simple to deserve mention, or too false to deserve 
credence. The third difficulty lies in the attempt to put savage thoughts 
into civilized language; our words are so full of meaning, carry with 
them so many great thoughts and collateral ideas. 
Some examples of the philosophic methods belonging to widely 
separated grades of culture may serve to make the previous statements 
clearer. 
Wind.—The Ute philosopher discerns that men and animals breathe. 
He recognizes vaguely the phenomena of the wind, and discovers its 
resemblance to breath, and explains the winds by relegating them to the 
class of breathings. He declares that there is a monster beast in the 
north that breathes the winter winds, and another in the south, and 
another in the east, and another in the west. The facts relating to winds 
are but partially discerned; the philosopher has not yet discovered that 
there is an earth-surrounding atmosphere. He fails in making the 
proper discriminations. His relegation of the winds to the ciass of 
