PRINCIPLES OF MTTHIFICATION. cv 



become in course of time. The working of animism can best be traced in 

 polytheism and polydemonism, in the shamanistic ideas as well as in the 

 religious. The principles traceable in the myth-making of the Klamath 

 Indians, which differs in some points from those of other Indians, may be 

 summed up as follows: 



The sky-gods, as sun, moon, winds, thunder, etc., here as elsewhere 

 surpass in importance and strength the other deified powers of nature, for 

 "theology is meteorology." Some of these chief gods assume the mask 

 of animate beings and inanimate things when they appear among men. 



Creation myths do not generally mention the material from which or 

 the mode by which objects were created, but simply state that K'mukamtch 

 produced them by his thinking and will power. 



The spirit, life, or heart of a deity is made distinct from the deity itself 

 and can live at a distance from it. Of the pipe of K'mukamtch burnt in 

 the fire, which in another myth figures as a small ball (k^-iks) and is his 

 spirit or life. 



The burlesque element, which the religions of Asia and Europe have 

 banished almost entirely, appears here as an almost integral attribute of a 

 god or genius. This appears to form an offset for the dire cruelties ascribed 

 to the same demons, and is also characteristic of the religions studied east 

 of Mississippi River. 



The element of obscenity is only incidental to the burlesque element, 

 but is sometimes very pronounced, especially in the beast stories. It was 

 added to cause merriment only, and not for such immoral purposes as we 

 see it applied to in the Decameron of Boccaccio and other products of a 

 corrupt age. 



The deified beings of a lower order, as animals, etc., appear sometimes 

 as one person, but just as often in the mystic number of five, if not of ten. 

 Fire, waters, springs, and plants are not deified, but lakes are sometimes. 

 Clouds do not appear here deified as witches, as they do among the Eastern 

 Indians. 



Certain miracles are here achieved by bodily contact and symbolic 

 acts; so dead animals are brought to life again by jumping three or five 



