LVIII REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



that each primitive people has a more or less definite and 

 detailed cosmogony. 



In view of the mode of development of the primitive 

 cosmogony, it is not surprising to find an intimate connection 

 between the story of the earth, stm, and stars and the imme- 

 diate surroundings of the people among whom the cosmogony 

 was developed. Thus the myths of a people who have lived 

 long by the sea relate to water monsters, and perhaps to great 

 inundations, as well as to other phenomena with which they 

 are acquainted ; the myths of primitive mountaineers relate 

 to ancient animals, akin to those roaming the mountain sides 

 but much larger and more sagacious, and also to great torrents 

 in the gorges, to thunder and lightning, perhaps to caverns, and 

 to other phenomena of their experience; the myths of desert 

 tribes relate to springs or streams, to j^lants that afford suste- 

 nance, perhaps to great storms, and to other phenomena of 

 then- peculiar experience. In this way the myths of the tribes 

 are connected with natural provinces of the earth inhabited 

 by tribes, and as these provinces intergrade, so the myths 

 intergrade. Moreover, since the expei'iences of a people in a 

 given province on one continent are like unto the experiences 

 of the people of a similarly conditioned province on another 

 continent, there is a curious likeness in the myths of remote 

 countries; and this parallelism in mythologies is one of the 

 phenomena of ethnology which is frequently misinterpreted, 

 and which requires constant consideration on the part of stu- 

 dents. 



There are few more striking illustrations of the connection 

 between the experiences and the mythology of a people than 

 that found among the Zuiii Indians of southwestern United 

 States. Pressed by a hard environment, including an arid 

 habitat and hostile neighbors, these Indians have been driven 

 into unusual habits and customs, and into an association with 

 plants, animals, and men of such character as to j^roduce a 

 peculiarly acute intelligence. This intelligence is manifested 

 in part in the arts of the tribe, and is manifested also in their 

 elaborate systems of symbolism and mythology. Thus the 

 myths of the Zuiii are of especial interest; they represent an 



