ON THE NORTH-WESTER'S' TRIBES OF CANADA. 673 



be explained in any other way than by assuming that the myths followed 

 the line of travel of the tribes, and that there has been dissemination of 

 tales all over the continent. The tabulations which have been made 

 include the Micmac of Nova Scotia, the Eskimo of Greenland, the Ponca 

 of the Mississippi Basin, and the Athapaskan of Mackenzie River ; and 

 the results give the clearest evidence of extensive borrowing. 



The identity of a great many tales in geographically contiguous areas 

 has led to the assumption that, wherever a great similarity between two 

 tales is found in North America, it is more likely that it is due co dissemina- 

 tion than to independent origin. 



But without extending these theories beyond the clearly demonstrated 

 truths of transmission of tales between neighbouring tribes, we may 

 reach some further conclusions. When we compare, for instance, the 

 legend of the culture hero of the Chinook, and that of the origin of the 

 whole religious ceremonial of the Ivwakiutl Indians, we find a very far- 

 reaching resemblance in certain parts of the legends, which makes it 

 certain that these parts are derived from the same source. The grand- 

 mother of the divinity of the Chinook, when a child, was carried away by 

 a monster. Their child became the mother of the culture-hero, and by 

 her help the monster was slain. In a legend from Vancouver Island a 

 monster, the cannibal spirit, carries away a girl, and is finally slain by her 

 help. Their child becomes later on the new cannibal spirit. There are 

 certain intermediate stages of these stories which prove their identity 

 beyond doubt. The important point in this case is that the myths in 

 question are perhaps the most fundamental ones in the mythologies of 

 these two tribes. Nevertheless, they are not of native growth, but 

 — partly at least— borrowed. A great many other important legends 

 prove to be of foi-eign origin, being grafted upon mythologies of various 

 tribes. This being the case, it follows that the mythologies of the various 

 tribes as we find them now are not organic growths, but have gradually 

 developed and obtained their present form by accretion of foreign material. 

 Much of this material must have been adopted ready made, and has been 

 adapted and changed in form according to the genius of the people who 

 borrowed it. The proofs of this process are so ample that there is no 

 reason to doubt the fact. We are therefore led to the opinion that, 

 from mythologies in their present form, it is impossible to derive the con- 

 clusion that they are mythological explanations of phenomena of nature 

 observed by the people to whom the myths belong, but that many of 

 them, at the places where we find them now, never had such a meaning. 

 If we acknowledge this conclusion as correct, we must give up the attempts 

 at offhand explanation of myths as fanciful, and we must admit that 

 also explanations given by the Indians themselves are often secondary, 

 and do not reflect the true origin of the myths. 



It may be well to explain this point of view a little more fully. 

 Certamly the phenomena of nature are the foundation of numerous myths, 

 else we should not find that the sun, moon, clouds, thunderstorm, the sea, 

 and the land play so important a part in all mythologies. But it seems 

 that the specific myth cannot be simply interpreted as the result of 

 observation of natural phenomena. Its growth is much too complex. In 

 most cases the present form has undergone material change by disintegra- 

 tion and by accretion of foreign material, so that the original idea is at 

 best much obscured. 



Perhaps the objection might be raised to this argument that the 

 1898. 3. X 



