OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XLV 
It is given in the genuine Indian style and conception, without 
admixture of European interpretation and civilized gloss. 
For this reason, as well as from its intrinsic value, it is certain 
that henceforth the story of Dsilyi‘ Neyani (Reared Within 
the Mountains) will be studied with more interest and profit 
than those of Iouskeka and Manabozho, hitherto most current 
in the literature of Indian myths. Throughout the paper Dr. 
Matthews has followed the alphabet for Indian words used in 
the Bureau of Ethnology and explained in the Introduction to 
the Study of Indian Languages. 
In its briefest expression the myth of Dsilyi‘ Neyani shows 
his captivity among the Ute, his escape by the intervention 
of gods, and his travels, sufferings, and adventures in regain- 
ing his home, all of which, under divine guidance, were in the 
nature of an initiation into religious rites, with the injunc- 
tion that these should be communicated by him to his people. 
Shortly after his return, having performed his duty as teacher 
or prophet, he disappeared to rejoin the gods, in accordance 
with their promise made to him during his initiatory travels. 
It would be impossible, without elaborating a commentary upon 
the text nearly equaling it in length, to point out the numerous 
essential similarities to be found in it with the myths of the 
Egyptians, the Hindus, the Greeks, and other still better known 
peoples, as recorded and discussed in modern literature. It is 
suflicient now to invite attention to the instructive evidence of 
similarity in the stage of mythologic- philosophy coming from 
a before unexplored source and only modified by the readily 
understood differences of environment. 
That the myth is of great antiquity is shown by the archaic 
character of the language employed and by the references to ob- 
solete customs; yet there are contained in it some passages and 
incidents obviously modern, for instance, the allusion to horses. 
It is not a cosmogony myth, though it is partly a myth of 
tribal history commencing at a time when the Navajo had be- 
come a distinct people; but it is in a large degree a myth of 
religion, in the strict sense of that term as comprehending the 
relations of man to occult powers and the practices connected 
