HEWITT] INTRODCCTION 137 



text priiitod herewith Ix'caiisc the rehilor seemed averse to telling 

 more than a brief outline of the leoend. A version in the Onondaga, 

 much longer and fuller than any herewith printed, has been recorded 

 from the mouth of Chief .lolin Arthur (iibson. and will br i)riiiti'(l in 

 a later report of the Bureau. 



The second text is a Seneca version of the cosniologic legend, obtained 

 in 189t) on the Cattaraugus reservation, in the western part of the State 

 of New York, from the late Mr John Armstrong, of Seneca-Delaware- 

 English mixed blood, an intelligent and conscientious annalist. Later, 

 at various times, it was revised in this otiice with the assistance of 

 Mr Andrew John. 



The last text in order is a Mohawk version, obtained in l.s9t) and 

 1897 on the Grand River reservation in Canada from Mr Seth New- 

 house, an intelligent and educated member of the Mohawk tribe. 



In general outlines the legend, as related here, is identical with that 

 found among all of the northern tribes of the Iroquoian stock of 

 languages. It is told partly in the language of tradition and ceremony, 

 which is formal, sometimes (juaint, sometimes archaic, frequently 

 my.stical, and largely metaphorical. But the figures of spee<-h are 

 made concrete by the elementary thought of the Irofjuois. and the 

 metaphor is regarded as a fact. 



Regarding the subject-matter of these texts, it may be said that it is 

 in the main of aboriginal origin. The most marked post-Columbian 

 modification is found in thv, portion relating to the formation of the 

 physical bodies of man and of the animals and plants, in that relating 

 to the idea of a hell, and in the adaptation of the rib story from the 

 ancient Hebrew mythology in connection with the creation of woman. 

 These alien elements are retained in the texts to show ))y concrete 

 examples how such foreign material ma}' be adopted and recast to 

 conform to the requirements of its new .setting. In the translation 

 some of the quaintness of the original is retained, as well as some of 

 its seeming tautologv. No liberty, however, has been taken with the 

 texts either in the way of emendation or addition or in i-endei-ing them 

 into English. They are given exactly as related. It may possibly 

 be objected that the interlinear and the free ti'anslations are too literal; 

 but the aboriginal thought, however commonplace, figurative, poet- 

 ical, is set forth as simply and with as strict a rendering of the 

 original as the matter and thought contained in it permit. It is no 

 ready task to embody in the language of enlightenment the thought of 

 barbarism. The viewpoint of the one plane of thought ditlei-s imich 

 from that of the other. 



The idea that the bodies of man and of the animals were created 

 directly out of specific portions of the earth b\- Tharonhiawakon" is 

 a comparatively modern and erroneous interpretation of the original 



'• He gnuips Ihe sky (by memory)." 



