56 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [bth. ann. 32 



The war between tlie gods continuod till it produced on Innd; in the water, 

 and the air, all creatures that move, and all plants that grow. There is not a 

 beast, bird, fish, reptile, insect, or plant wliich is not a fallen divinity ; and for 

 every one noted tliere is a story of its previous existence. 



Tliis transformation of the former people, or divinities, of America was 

 finished just'before the present race of men — that is, the Indians — appeared.' 



In some mythologies a few personages who are left unchanged at the eve of 

 man's coming transform themselves voluntarily. The details of the change vary 

 from tribe to tribe, but in all it takes place in some described way, and forms 

 part of the general change, or metamorphosis, which is the vital element in the 

 American system. In many, perhaps in all, the mythologies, there is an account 

 of how some of the former people, o_r gods, instead of fighting and taking part 

 in the struggle of creation and being transformed, retained their original char- 

 acter, and either went above the sky or sailed away westward to where the 

 sky comes down, and passed out under it, and beyond, to a pleasant region where 

 they live in delight. This is that contingent to which I have referred, tliat jiart 

 of the "first people" in which no passion was developed; they remaiuetl in 

 primitive simplicity, undifferentiated, and are happy at present. They corre- 

 spond to those gods of cla.ssic antiquity who enjoyed themselves apart, and took 

 no interest whatever in the sufferings or the joys of mankind.' 



Everything in nature had a tale of its own, if some one would but tell it. 

 and during the epoch of constructive power in the race, — the epoch when lan- 

 guages were built up and great stories made, — few things of importance to 

 people of that time were left unconsidered; hence there was among the Indians 

 of America a volume of tales as immense, one might say, as an ocean river. 

 This statement I make in view of materials which I have gathered myself, and 

 which are still unpublished, — materials which, though voluminous, are com- 

 paratively meager, merely a hint of what in some tribes was lest, and of what 

 in others is still uncollected. . . . 



From what is known of the mind of antiquity, and from what data we have 

 touching savage life in the present, we may atfirm as a theory that primitive 

 beliefs In all places are of the same system essentially as the American. In 

 that system, every individual existence beyond man is a divinity, but a divinity 

 under sentence, — a divinity weighed down by fate, a divinity with a history 

 behind it, a history which is tragedy or comedy as the case may be. These 

 histories extend along the whole line of experience, and include every combina- 

 tion conceivable to primitive man.' 



During eight years of investigation among Indian tribes in North America, 

 I obtained the various parts of that Creation myth mentioned in this intro- 

 duction, from tribes that were remote from one another, and in different 

 degress of development. Such tales I found in the east, in the central regions, 

 and finally in California and Oregon. Over this space, the extreme points of 

 which are 3,000 miles apart, each tribe has the Creation myth, — one portion 

 being brought out with special emphasis in one tribe, and another por- 

 tion in a different one. In tribes lea.st developed, the earliest tales are very 

 distinct, and .specially valuable on ..some points relating to the origin and fall 

 of the gods. Materials from the extreme west are more anliaic and simple 

 than those of the east. In fact the two regions present the two extremes, 

 in North America, of least developed and most developed aboriginal thought. 

 In this is their interest. They form one complete system.* 



' Curtin, Jeremiah, Hero-Talcs of Ireland, p. xiv, Boston, 1894. 

 ' Ibid., p. XV. 

 » Ibid., p. xvi. 

 «Ibld., pp. xllx-1. 



