LXXXIV lUJREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



"^riiis stage is pojnilarly known thi-ougli the wi-itings of ]\Iax 

 Miiller and others wlio have devoted niuoh time to the stndv of 

 Sanskrit literature. It is set forth in the popular accounts of 

 Norse mvtliolug}' and also in Germanic mythology. Again we 

 find it w(dl recorded in Homer and Hesiod. In fact, there is 

 now a larye bod^- of literature o-athered from various lands 

 which is being carefully studied ior the purpose of discovering 

 the cliaracteristics of this stage of myth. 



While romance is beast fable in savagery, romance is power 

 myth in Iiarbarism. To understand this transmutation we must 

 see the change which is wrought in the concepts of worlds or 

 in cosmoloo-y. It is a chang-e whicli begins in savagery, but 

 is more highly developed in barbarism. The concepts of space 

 worlds control the concepts of the savage mind to sucli an 

 extent that all of the attributes of bodies are referred to the 

 worlds as properly belonging to them. Thus colors originally 

 come to be classified as seven, for the act of expressing concepts 

 in words is more potent than the sense of vision in controlling 

 the judgment of the color of objects. 



The j)rismatic colors, as such, are unrecognized; liut hues, 

 tints, shades, and even patterns are classified, and there is a 

 tendency to classify them as hues. The scheme of colors, 

 perhaps, differs from tribe to tribe; of this I am not sure, but 

 this 1 do find among some tribes: Blue is the color of the 

 zenith, and things are said to have sky color. It is a very 

 natural mistake for man to reach the conclusion that sky color 

 is made b^' the skA' or tliat it comes from the sky hv the habit 

 of languag'e which alread)' lias been set fortli Color is thus 

 reified and assigned to a world. Darkness, or black, seem to 

 priuiitive man to come from below, and as darkness is reified, 

 it is believed to come from the nadir world Green is held to 

 belong properly to tlie nndworld, for it is tlie color of jilant 

 bodies and is seen nowhere else. 



In tribal society the colors seem to be variously assigned to 

 the cardinal worlds as lines, tints, shades, and patterns. In the 

 cases which 1 liave especially investigated, i"ed l)elongs to 

 the west, white to the east, yellow to the south, and gra}' to the 

 noi'th. 



