iiEwiiT;'] INTRODUCTION 53 



race; to discover and set forth the meaniuf; of that which in mental work, 

 historic strivings, and spiritual ideals ties the historic nations to one another. 

 At the present time this work is done, if not completely, at least measurably 

 well, and a new work awaits us, to demonstrate that there is a higher and 

 a mightier hond, the relationship of created things with one another, and their 

 inseverable connection with That wliicli some men reverence as God, but which 

 other men call the Unknowable, the Unseen. 



This new work, which is the necessary continuation of the first, and which 

 alone can give it completeness and significance, will be achieved when we have 

 established the science of mythology.' 



Again, he asks: "How is this science from which men may receive 

 such service to be founded?" 



On this point Mr. Curtin is clear and instructive, maintaining that 

 such a science of mythology' can be founded — 



In one way alone : by obtaining from races outside of the Aryan and Semitic 

 their myths, their beliefs, their view of the world ; this done, the rest will follow 

 as a result of intelligent labor. But the great battle is in the first part of the 

 work; for the inherent difficulty of the task has been increased by Europeans, 

 who have exterminated great numbers among the best primitive races, partially 

 civilized or rather degraded othei's, and rendered the remainder distrustful and 

 not easily approached on the subject of their myths and ethnic beliefs. 



Its weightiest service will be rendered in the domain of religion, for without 

 mythology there can be no thorough understanding of any religion on earth, 

 either in its inception or its growth.' 



The nest citation shows Mr. Curtin's complete mastery of the 

 subject in hand, and his conclusions are well worth the careful con- 

 sideration of every student of mythic and legendary lore. In refer- 

 ence to the collection of myths and tales ^nd beliefs he presents the 

 following wise conclusions: 



There is everywhere a sort of selvage of short tales and anecdotes, small 

 information about ghosts and snakes, among all these races, which are easily 

 obtained, and most Europeans seem to think that when they have collected some 

 of these trivial things they have all that the given people possess. But they are 

 greatly mistaken. All these people have something better. There was not a 

 single stock of Indians in America which did not possess, in beautiful forms, the 

 elements of an extensive literature with a religion and philosophy which would 

 have thrown light on many beginnings of Aryan and Semitic thought, a 

 knowledge of which in so many cases is now lost to us, but which we hope to 

 recover in time ... if civilized men instead of slaying " savages," directly 

 and indirectly, will treat them as human beings, and not add to the labor of those 

 workers who in the near future will surely endeavor, singly or in small groups, 

 to study the chief primitive races of the earth and win from them, not short 

 insignificant odds and ends of information but great masses of material; 

 . . .- these races possess in large volume some of the most beautiful produc- 

 tions of the human mind, and facts that are not merely of great, but of unique, 

 value.' 



> Curtin, Jeremiah, Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russiaus, Western Slavs, and Magyars, 

 p. vii, Boston, 1890. 

 = Ibid., p. X. 

 * Ibid., pp. x-xi. 



