2 INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXTS. 



judgment, throw a profusion of light upon the i)hysical and mental cliarac- 

 teristics of the natives and on their past and present condition. 



The task and care of fixing the unwritten mental productions of un- 

 cultured races and tribes thus devolves upon the white man. It is by no 

 moans an easy undertaking, and success can be attained only when the 

 investigator is favored by circumstances. Ethnologic texts taken from an 

 uncivilized people are of much intrinsic value only when the scientific 

 collector is lucky enough to secure the services of intelligent and well- 

 informed individuals whose veracity is above suspicion, and who have 

 constantly resided among their own people. 



Considerations of this nature guided me when I endeavored to commit 

 to writing the strange mythology of Oregonian tribes, replete with the most 

 fantastic stories of their elementary deities and tricksy animal daimons; 

 and when the weird and unearthly strains of their war-whoops and dance- 

 yells first struck my ear, I considered even these worthy of notation. I 

 have not hesitated to assign the first and foremost place in this linguistic 

 volume on the Klamath language to the "Texts" obtained from trustworthy 

 Indians of the Klamath Lake and Modoc tribes, for I know that they fjxith- 

 fully portray the characteristic features and idiosyncrasies of these dusky 

 denizens of a secluded upland region. These literary specimens are the 

 foundation and basis upon which I have rested my investigations. 



Tlie language of these specimens, as the organ of transmission of the 

 national ideas, had to be carefull}^ sifted and overhauled before it could 

 become the basis of linguistic and ethnologic investigation. Numerous 

 revisals and comparisons were needed to eliminate involuntary mistakes of 

 Indian informants, who never elevate themselves above a purely empiric 

 mastery of their native idiom. That an accurate grammar can be composed 

 upon the solid foundation of faultless texts only, nobody will contest. Nei- 

 ther will it be doubted that the more copious the specimens are the safer 

 the conclusions of the linguist will be concemiing the principles governing 

 the forms of speech. 



Literary productions enlarging upon national and ethnologic matters 

 are of iijuch greater importance for the scientific study of the language in 

 \\ liicli tUcv jmay be composed than any otiicr texts. How poor and fi-ag- 



