10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 67 



an old man, possessed of an exceedingly poor memory, and having 

 but an imperfect command of English. His chief difficulties seemed 

 to be an inability to speak slowly, to relate facts clearly and in con- 

 secutive 'order, and to state definitely the subjects and objects of a 

 given action. To be sure, the last imperfection may have been due 

 either to his age or to the fact that he retained but a partial recol- 

 lection of the traditions of his tribe. In judging Smith's usefulness 

 as a narrator the fact must not be lost sight of that the tribal life of 

 the Alsea Indians broke down long before he attained the age of 

 manhood, and that the old custom of gathering the children, during 

 the winter nights, around the fireplace and relathig to them the tribal 

 traditions and other stories was not practiced much during his child- 

 hood. For these reasons the traditions obtained from Smith are, in 

 a majority of cases, incomplete, vague, and full of unnecessary 

 repetitions, involving not only phrases and sentences but whole 

 passages. This is especially true of the two creation myths dictated 

 by him. He was more successful as a narrator of tales and was at 

 his best in the telling of historical narratives. His best tales are 

 The Story of the Man Who Married the Bear- Woman (No. 16) and 

 his version of Grant's death (No. 20). I was more successful with 

 Thomas Jackson, who related facts briefly but clearly and to the point, 

 and whose knowledge of English made him a valuable factor in the 

 rendition of the native texts obtained from William Smith. Unfor- 

 tunately, he was not thoroughly famihar with aU the traditions of 

 his tribe, so that, despite incessant efforts, he was able to dictate only 

 eight texts, some of which have been omitted from the present volume. 

 To the long contact of the Alsea Indians with the white man and to 

 the early discontinuance of their tribal life must be attributed the 

 paucity of the native traditions recorded in the present volume. It 

 is safe to state that the data collected by Doctor Farrand and myself 

 represent practically all the information concerning Alsea mythology 

 and folklore which it was* possible to obtain. 



Doctor Farrand did not have an opportunity of arranging and 

 correcting his material, consequently the collection was placed at 

 my disposal in the form of field notes; and since the phonetic devices 

 adopted by him differed materially from my own system, it became 

 necessary to revise his texts with the aid of my own informants — 

 a task accomplished without much difficulty. Doctor Farrand's 

 texts contain many archaic words and forms, owing to the fact that 

 his informants were much older men than those employed by me. 

 I found in them also occasional Yakwina and Siuslaw words which, 

 however, were easily recognized as such by my informants. Doctor 

 Farrand's translations were, in most cases, too free, requiring care- 

 ful revision. I gave attention further to the paragraphing of the 

 traditions, but did not attempt to make material changes in the titles 



