HEwS] INTRODUCTION 67 



It is evident that myths of origins project backward to an assumed 

 condition of things the story of a day or of a year, and creation is 

 described as Spring on a universal scale, that is, it explains the man- 

 ner in which the order of things, existent where the stories are told, 

 came about, as a Rebirth of Nature. But no one will contend that 

 there were human eyewitnesses of what the narratives report. 



The wise men, prophets, and priests of tribal men painted these 

 tales with the glamour and witchery of poetry. Myths are the poetic 

 judgments of tribal men about the phenomena of life and the outside 

 world and embody the philosophy of these men about the problems 

 and mysteries of the universe around them and in their own lives. 

 So, in order to understand these narratives, it is necessary to study 

 them with the deepest sympathJ^ But our sympatlu' with the view- 

 point of the myth narratives of tribal men should not veil the realities 

 of science from our minds. 



Piloted by science in seeking to know the truth about the universe, 

 scholars do not expect to discover it in the myth-lore or the folk- 

 lore of tribal men. To study the birth and the growth of opinions 

 forms one of the most instructive chapters in the .science of mind or 

 psychology. 



The Seneca name S'hagodiiowe"g6wa or S'hagodiiowe'qgowa des- 

 ignates one of the famous " man-beings " who are of the lineage of 

 the " first people." Some unknowing Indian interpi-eters render this 

 term erroneously by the English words " false face," which is a trans- 

 lation which effectually conceals the literal meaning of the expression, 

 which is freely " The (Jreat Ones Who Defend Them." But as an 

 appellative the term is also applied to a single one of these fictitious 

 beings. The plural concept is evidently a late development, and 

 probably arose after the establishment of societies whose members, 

 when ceremonially attired, must for one thmg wear a wooden mask 

 having as its essential mark a wry mouth. So it is clear that the ex- 

 pression " false face " applies to the members of such societies and not 

 at all to the man-beings so impersonated. The Iroquoian myth of 

 Creation knows only one man-being, who assumed the duty of pro- 

 tecting mankind from pestilence and disease. He was the God of the 

 Air or the Wind, sometimes appearing as the Whirlwind. Cere- 

 monially he is addressed as S^hedwdso'dd^ or as Et^hl'sd'dci'-, both 

 meaning " He Who Is Our Grandfather." 



It would seem that the pluralizing of the concept has resulted in 

 a marked forgetting of the original objective reality represented in 

 the concept, which in turn detracts from the high esteem in which 

 the original Wind God was held. The Onondaga name of this per- 

 sonage is Hadu'T; the Mohawk, Akon'wdrff. Both these names 

 have arisen from something peculiar to members of the so-called 

 " False Face Societies," the first meaning, from the common postures 



