BULL. 30] 



MYTHOLOGY 



969 



from differences of origin, from differ- 

 ences of history, from differences of edu- 

 cation, and from differences of environ- 

 ment. Hence, to produce the same human 

 nature everywhere, these factors must 

 everywhere be tlie same. Tiie environ- 

 ments of no two peoples are ever precisely 

 the same, and so the two differ in their 

 character, in their activities, and in their 

 beliefs. 



To the primitive inchoate thought of 

 the North American Indian all the bodies 

 and elements of his subjective and object- 

 ive environment were humanized be- 

 ings — man-beings, or beings that were 

 persons, that were man in form and at- 

 tributes and endowed with immortal life 

 (not souls in the modern acceptation of 

 this term), with omniscience, and with 

 potent magic power in their several juris- 

 dictions. These Vjeings were formed in 

 the image of man, because man was the 

 highest type of being known to himself 

 and because of his subjective method of 

 thought, which imputed to outside things, 

 objective realities, his own form and at- 

 tributes. He could conceive of nature in 

 no other way. They sometimes, however, 

 had the power of instant change or trans- 

 migration into any desired object through 

 the exercise of peculiar magic power. 



The world of the savage was indeed 

 of small extent, being confined by his 

 boundless ignorance to the countries bor- 

 dering on his own, a little, if any, beyond 

 his horizon. Beyond this, he knew noth- 

 ing of the world, nothing of its extent or 

 structure. This fact is important and 

 easily verified, and this knowledge aids 

 in fully appreciating the teachings of 

 the philosophy of savage men. Around 

 and through this limited region traveled 

 the sun, the moon, the stars, the winds, 

 the meteors and the fire dragons of the 

 night, and the fitful auroral cherubim of 

 the north. All these were to him man- 

 beings. All trees and plants — the sturdy 

 oak, the tall pine, and the wild parsnip — 

 were such beings rooted to the earth by 

 the mighty spell of some potent wizard, 

 and so, unlike the deer, they do not ordi- 

 narily travel from place to place. In like 

 manner, hills and mountains and the 

 waters of the earth may sometimes be 

 thus spellbound by the potency of some 

 enchantment. Earthquakes are some- 

 times caused by mountains which, held in 

 pitiless thralldom by the orenda of some 

 mighty sorcerer, struggle in agony to be 

 freed. And even the least of these are 

 reputed to be potent in the exercise of 

 magic power. But rivers run and rills 

 and brooks leap and bound over the land, 

 yet even these in the ripeness of time 

 may be gripped to silence by the mighty 

 magic power of the god of winter. 



Among all peoples in all times and in 

 all planes of culture there were persons 

 whose opinions were orthodox, and there 

 were also persons whose ojjinions were 

 heterodox, and were therefore a constant 

 protest against the common opinions, the 

 commonsense of the community; these 

 were the agnostics of the ages, the prophets 

 of change and reformation. 



Every ethnic body of myths of the 

 North American Indians forms a circum- 

 stantial narration of the origin of the 

 world of the myth-makers and of all 

 things and creatures therein. From these 

 narratives it is learned that a world, 

 earlier than the present, situated usually 

 above the visible sky, existed from the 

 beginning of time, in which dwelt the 

 first or prototypal personages who, hav- 

 ing the form and the attributes of man, 

 are herein called man-lteings. Each of 

 these man-beings possessed a magic pow- 

 er peculiar to himself or herself, by which 

 he or she was later enabled to perform his 

 or her functions after the metamorphosis 

 of all things. The life and manner of liv- 

 ing of the Indians to-day is patterned after 

 that of these man-beings in their first 

 estate. They were the prototypes of the 

 things which are now on this earth. 



This elder world is introduced in a 

 state of peace and harmony. In the ripe- 

 ness of time, unrest and discord arose 

 among these first beings, because the 

 minds of all, excepta very small number, 

 becoming aljnormal, were changed, and 

 the former state of tranquillity was soon 

 succeeded l)y a complete metamorphosis 

 of all things and beings, or was followed 

 by commotion, collision, and strife. The 

 transformed things, the prototypes, were 

 banished from the sky-land to this world, 

 whereupon it acquired its present appear- 

 ance and liecame peopled by all that is 

 upon it — man, animals, trees, and plants, 

 who formerly were man-l)eings. In some 

 cosmologies man is brought upon the 

 scene later and in a peculiar manner. 

 Each man-being became transformed into 

 whathis or her attributes required, what 

 his primal and unchangeable nature de- 

 manded, and then he or she l)ecame in 

 ^ body what he had been, in a disguised 

 body, before the transformation. But 

 those man-beings whose minds did not 

 change by becoming al)normal, remained 

 therein the skyland — separate, peculiar, 

 and immortal. Indeed they are but 

 shadowy figures passing into the shoreless 

 sea of oblivion. 



Among the tribes of North American 

 Indians there is a striking similarity in 

 their C3'cles of genesis myths, in that 

 they treat of several regions or worlds. 

 Sometimes around and above the mid- 

 world, the habitat of the myth, are placed 



