THE KLAMATH INDIANS OF OREGON. 



By Albert S. Gatschet, 



INTEODUCTION TO THE TEXTS. 



The most important and valuable monument of itself which a people 

 can transmit to posterity is a national literature. But to answer the require- 

 ments fully, the literature of a people must possess a certain degree of 

 completeness in portraying the national peculiarities. It should embrace 

 not only sketches of contemporaneous history, of national habits, customs, 

 and laws laid down in the native idiom, but we expect from it also a truth- 

 ful rendering of the spiritual side of national life, of its physical and meta- 

 physical speculations as we find them embodied in its myths, beliefs, 

 superstitions and conjurers' practices, and of speeches and discourses of 

 its representative men held on solemn occasions. The most fragrant flow- 

 ers in any national literature are certainly the poetic productions, if a 

 full account of their origin and purport is added to make them easily 

 comprehensible. 



While cultured nations are constantly engaged in perpetuating the 

 memory of their thoughts ai^d achievements by means of some alphabetic 

 or syllabic system of writing, the uncivilized hunting or fishing tribes pos- 

 sess none, or only the most imperfect means of recording their affairs. 

 All of them possess mythic tales, traditional history, and songs for various 

 incidents of life; not a few are even originators of didactic folklore, of 

 proverbs, and of versified rhythmic poetry. Many of these mental })ro- 

 ductions are remarkable for artistic beauty, others for a most interesting 

 variety of detail; but all of them will, if collected with accuracy and sound 



