970 



MYTHOLOGY 



[b. a. e. 



a group of worlds — one at the east, one 

 at the south, one at the west, one at the 

 north, one above, and one below — which, 

 with the niidworld, number seven in alL 

 Even each of the jirincipal colors is as- 

 signed to its appropriate world (see Color 

 symbolmn ) . Hence, to tlie primitive mind, 

 the cosmos (if the term be allowed here) 

 was a universe of man-beings whose activ- 

 ities constituted the operations of nature. 

 To it nothing was what it is to scientific 

 thought. Indeed, it was a world wholly 

 artificial and fanciful. It was the product 

 of the fancy of savage and inchoate 

 thinking, of the commonsense of savage 

 thought. 



So far as is definitely known, the vari- 

 ous systems of mythology in North Amer- 

 ica differ much in detail one from an- 

 other, superticially giving them the as- 

 pect of fundamental difference of origin 

 and growth; but a careful study of them 

 discloses the fact that they accord with 

 all great bodies of mythology in a prin- 

 ciple which underlies all, namely, the 

 principle of change, transmigration, or 

 metamorphosis of things, through the 

 exercise of orendn, or magic power, from 

 one state, condition, or form, to another. 

 By this means things have become what 

 they now are. Strictly, then, creation of 

 something from nothing has no place in 

 them. In these mythologies, purporting to 

 be philosophies, of course, no knowledge 

 of the real changes which have affected 

 the environing world is to be sought; but 

 it is equally true that in them are em- 

 bedded, like rare fossils and precious 

 gems, many most important facts regard- 

 ing the history of the human mind. 



For a definite people in a definite plane 

 of culture, the myths and the concomi- 

 tant beliefs resting on them, of their 

 neighbors, are not usually true, since the 

 personages and the events narrated in 

 them have an asjiect and an ex^jression 

 quite different from their own, although 

 they may in the last analysis express 

 fundamentallj^ identical things^may in 

 fact spring from identical motives. 



Among the Iroquois and the eastern 

 Algonquian tribes, the Thunder people, 

 human in form and mind and usually 

 four in number, are most important and 

 staunch friends of man. But in the Lake 

 region, the N. W. coast to Alaska, and in 

 the northern drainage of the Mississippi 

 and Missouri valleys, this conception is 

 replaced by that of the Thunderbircl. 



Among the Algonquian and the Iro- 

 quoian tribes the myths regarding the 

 so-called hre-dragon are at once striking 

 and important. Now, the fire-dragon is 

 in fact the personification of the meteor. 

 Flying through the air among the stars, 

 the larger meteors appear against some 



midnight sky like fiery reptiles sheathed 

 in lambent flames. It is believed of them 

 that they fly from one lake or deep river 

 to another, in the bottom of which they 

 are bound by enchantment to dwell, foV 

 should they be permitted to remain on 

 the land they would set the world on fire. 

 The Iroquois applied their name for the 

 fire-dragon, 'light-thrower,' to the lion 

 when first seen, thus indicating their con- 

 ception fif the fierceness of the fire-dragon. 

 The Ottawa and Chippewa missibizi, or 

 7nissibiz}ta, literally 'great lynx,' is their 

 name for this mythic being. The horned 

 serpent does not belong here, but the 

 misnamed tigers of the Peoria and other 

 Algonquian tribes do. Among the Iro- 

 quois it was the deeds of the fire-dragon 

 that hastened the occasion for the meta- 

 morphosis of the primal beings. 



As early as 1S68 Brinton called atten- 

 tion to the curious circumstance that in 

 \he mythology of those Eskimo who had 

 had no contact with European travelers, 

 there were no changes or transformations 

 of the world affecting the aspect and 

 character of the earth. In this state- 

 ment he is followed by Boas (1904), who 

 also claims that the anipial myth proper 

 did not belong originally to Eskimo my- 

 thology, although there are now in this 

 mythology some animal myths and weird 

 tales and accounts regarding monsters and 

 vampire ghosts and the thaumaturgic 

 deeds of shamans and wizards. This is 

 in strong contrast with the content of the 

 mythologies of the Indian tribes that have 

 been studied. 



In its general aspects the mythology of 

 the North American Indians has been in- 

 structively and profitably discussed by 

 several American anthropologists, who 

 have greatly advanced the study and 

 knowledge of the subject. Among these 

 are Powell, Brinton, Boas, Curtin, 

 Fletcher, Matthews, Gushing, Fewkes, 

 and Dixon. 



Powell treated the subject from the 

 philosophicand evolutional pointof view, 

 and sought to establish successive stages 

 in the development of the mythologic 

 thought or concept, making them imputa- 

 tion, personification, and reification; and 

 the product he divided into four stages 

 from the character of the dominant gods 

 ineach, namely, ( 1 ) JiecastotJiei^tm, wherein 

 everything has life, personality, volition, 

 and design, and the wondrous attributes 

 of man; (2) zoiitlifisui, wherein life is not 

 attributed indiscriminately to lifeless 

 things, the attributes of man are imputed 

 to the animals and no line of demarca- 

 tion is drawn between man and beast, 

 and all facts and phenomena of nature 

 are explained in the mythic history of 

 these zoomorphic gods; (3) physiiheisyn, 



