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BUREAU OF AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 07 



certain birds and mammals, the following additional explanatory 

 notes have been found : 



Why Robin is timid. 



Wren's small size. 



Why Crane spears fish at low tide. 



Why Snipes cry during a fog. 



Why Black Bear likes -to dig up graves. 



Beaver's superiority over Black Bear. 



Why Whale never comes into the mouth 

 of a river. 



Why Whale is washed ashore only near 

 the village of a chief. 



Why Indians fish with poles. 



Why Snakes shed their skins. 



Why Hawk bites off heads of other birds. 



Why Woodpecker's head is red. 



Why Woodpecker's head is white. 



Why flies crawl even after they are cut 

 in two. 



The existence of a legendary mountain 

 that reaches to the sky. 



Why Wolves like to kill Elk. 



The origin of Salmon in the several 



Names of certain places. 



Origin of cammas. 



Rocks instead of a waterfall in a certain 

 locality. 



The differentiation of the Indians into 

 separate tribes.. 



Why Fur-Seal seeks refuge on land 

 during a storm. 



The existence of Fleas. 



Why Indians boil and smoke salmon. 



Why Thunder lives in the sky. 



The knots on a thimble-berry stalk. 



Why it is a bad omen to hear the cry of 

 the Kingfisher, especially as he flies over 

 a smoking chimney. 



Why Hawk has a twisted neck. 



Why Black Bear acts occasionally like 

 a human being. 



The origin of Elk's name ("Food"). 



In common with many other tribes of this area, the Alsea Indians 

 assign in their traditions an importance to a younger brother that 

 would not seem to be justified by the relative position which he holds 

 in the family organization of the tribe. Thus, whenever a tradition 

 records the exploits of several brothers, the younger brother invariably 

 plays the leadmg part, either by saving those of his brothers who have 

 come to grief or by acting as their chief counsellor. In like manner, the 

 youngest member of the tribe (or village) is usually represented as 

 conceiving of, leading, or executing aU heavy tasks. Conventional 

 phrases for bringing a narrative to a close, as have been observed, for 

 example, among the Takelma, Molala, and Kalapuya, seem to be 

 lackmg in Alsea; however, a number of myths are introduced with 

 the statement "He (or they) kept on going," and are closed by 

 stating "Tliereupon he (or they) resumed the journey." 



References have been made in the footnotes to the various authors 

 and their works consulted in the editing of the texts comprising the 

 present volume; but in order to avoid unnecessary repetition of the 

 full titles of these works and of the places and years of their publica- 

 tion, an alphabetical list is appended (see p. 19), 



AU references to the folklore of the Molala, Kalapuya, and Quileute 

 Indians were taken from manuscript material collected by me for 

 future publication. 



The Alsea-English and English-iVlsea vocabularies at the end of 

 this volume are by no means complete dictionaries; however, they 



