mrwii^] INTEODUCTION 55 



These people, who were very niiinerous, lived together for ages m harmony. 

 There were uo L-ollisions among them, no disputes during that period; all were 

 in perfect accord. In some mysterious fashion, however, each individual was 

 changing imperceptibly ; an internal movement was going on. At last a time 

 came when the differences were sufficient to cause conflict, except in the case 

 of a group to be mentioned hereafter, and struggles began. These struggles 

 were gigantic, for the "first people" had mighty power; they had also won- 

 derful perception and knowledge. They felt the approach of friends or enemies 

 even at a distance; they knew the thought in another's heart. If one of them 

 expressed a wish, it was accomplished immediately ; nay. if he even thought of 

 a thing, it was there before him. Endowed witli such powers and qualities, it 

 would seem that their struggles would be endless and indecisive : but such was 

 not the case. Though opponents might be equally dextrous, and have the power 

 o' the wish or the word in a similar degree, one of them would conquer in the 

 end through wishing for more effective and better things, and thus become the 

 hero of a higher cause; that is, a cause from whicli benefit would accrue to 

 mankind, the coming race.' 



. . . Among living creatures, vi'e are not to reckon man, for man does not 

 appear in any of those myth tales ; they relate solely to extra-human exist- 

 ences, and describe the battle and agony of creation, not the adventures of 

 anything in the world since it received its present form and office. According 

 to popular modes of thou,ght and speech, all this would be termed the fall of 

 the gods, for the "first people" of the Indian tales correspond to the earliest 

 gods of other races." 



In the theory of spiritual evolution, worked out by the aboriginal mind of 

 America, all kinds of moral quality and character are represented as coming 

 from an internal movement through which the latent, unevolved personality of 

 each individual of these " first people." or gods, is produced. Once that per- 

 sonality is produced, every species of dramatic situation and tragic catastrophe 

 follows as an inevitable sequence. There is no more peace after that; there' 

 are only collisions followed by combats which are continued by the gods till 

 they are turned into all the things, animal, vegetable, and mineral — which are 

 either useful or harmful to man, and thus creation is accomplished. During 

 the period of struggles, the gods organize institutions, social and religious, ac- 

 cording to which they live. These are bequeathed to man; and nothing that an 

 Indian has is of human invention, all is divine. An avowed innovation, any 

 thing that we call reform, anything invented by man. would be looked on as 

 sacrilege, a terrible, an inexpiable crime. The Indian lives in a world prepared 

 by the gods, and follows in their footsteps — that is the only morality, tlie one 

 pure and holy religion.' 



This creation myth of the New World is a work of great value, for by aid of 

 it we can bring order into mythologj'. and reconstruct, at least in outline, and 

 provisionally, that early system of belief which was common to all races: a 

 system which, though expressed in many languages and in endlessly varying 

 details, has one meaning, and was, in the fullest sense of the word, one — a 

 religion truly catholic and oecumenical, for it was believed in by all peojile, 

 wherever resident, and believed in with a vividness of faith, and a sincerity of 

 attachment, which no civilized man can even imagine, unless he has had long 

 experience of primitive races.' 



• Curtin. Jeremiah. Hero-Tales of Ireland, pp. x, il, Boston, 1S94. 

 2 Ibid., p. xi. 



' Ibid., pp. xii, xiii. 



* Ibid., p. xiii. 



