POWELL. ] STAGES OF PHILOSOPHY. 27 
ice, and surely it is the very color of ice, and he believes further that a 
monster serpent-god coils his huge back to the firmament and with his 
seales abrades its face and causes the ice-dust to fall upon the earth. 
In the winter-time it falls as snow, but in the summer-time it melts and 
falls as rain, and the Shoshoni philosopher actually sees the serpent of 
the storm in the rainbow of many colors. 
The Oraibi philosopher who lives in a pueblo is acquainted with archi- 
tecture, and so his world is seven-storied. There is a world below and five 
worlds above this one. JMwiiwa, the rain-god, who lives in the world 
immediately above, dips his great brush, made of feathers of the birds 
of the heavens, into the lakes of the skies and sprinkles the earth with 
refreshing rain for the irrigation of the crops tilled by these curious In- 
dians who live on the cliffs of Arizona. In winter, Muiiwa crushes the 
ice of the lakes of the heavens and scatters it over the earth, and we 
have a snov-fall. 
The Hindoo philosopher says that the lightning-bearded Indra breaks 
the vessels that hold the waters of the skies with his thunder-bolts, and 
the rains descend to irrigate the earth. 
The philosopher of civilization expounds to us the methods by which 
the waters are evaporated from the land and the surface of the sea, and 
carried away by the winds, and gathered into clouds to be discharged 
again upon the earth, keeping up forever that wonderful circulation of 
water from the heavens to the earth and from the earth to the heavens— 
that orderly succession of events in which the waters travel by river, 
by sea, and by cloud. 
Rainbow.—In Shoshoni, the rainbow is a beautiful serpent that abrades 
the firmament of ice to give us snow and rain. In Norse, the rainbow 
is the bridge Bifrost spanning the space between heaven and earth. 
In the Miad, the rainbow is the goddess Iris, the messenger of the King 
of Olympus. In Hebrew, the rainbow is the witness to a covenant. 
In science, the rainbow is an analysis of white light into its constituent 
colors by the refraction of raindrops. 
Falling stars.—In Ute, falling stars are the excrements of dirty little 
star-gods. In science—well, I do not know what falling stars are in 
science. I think they are cinders from the furnace where the worlds are 
forged. You may call this mythologie or scientific, as you please. 
Migration of birds.—The Algonkian philosopher explains the migra- 
tion of birds by relating the myth of the combat between Ma-bi-bo-no-ki 
and Shingapis, the prototype or progenitor of the water-hen, one of their 
animal gods. <A fierce battle raged between Ka-bi-bo-no-ki and Shinga- 
pis, but the latter could not be conquered. All the birds were driven 
from the land but Shingapis; and then was it established that when- 
ever in the future Winter-maker should come with his cold winds, fierce 
snows, and frozen waters, all the birds should leave for the south ex- 
cept Shiigapis and his friends. So the birds that spend their winters 
