326 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS. 



by independent growtli or modern transmission, or to accept 

 as a contribution to the early History of the New World. 



Firstly, tben, there are found among savage tribes myths 

 like in their character, and therefore no doubt in their origin, 

 to those of the great Aryan race which have in our own times 

 been so successfully traced to the very point where they arose 

 out of the contemplation of nature. No one has yet done for 

 the myths of the lowest tribes what has been done for those 

 of our more highly developed race by Kuhn and Miiller, and 

 their school in Germany and England ; but Schirren, by his 

 treatment of the gods and mythic ancestors of the South Sea 

 Islanders as personifications of the phenomena of nature, has 

 made an important step toward extending the modern method 

 of interpretation to the Mythology of the World. ^ Still, a very 

 slight acquaintance with the popular tales of America, Poly- 

 nesia, even Australia and Van Diemen^s Land, will show that 

 they are the same in their nature and often in their incidents, 

 by virtue of the like nature of the minds which conceived them. 



As Zeus, the personified Heaven of our own race, drops 

 tears on earth which mortals call rain, so does the heaven-god 

 of Tahiti ; 



" Thickly falls the small rain on the face of the sea, 

 They are not drops of rain, but they are tears of Oro."^ 



In the dark patches on the face of the moon, the Singhalese 

 sees the pious hare that ofiei-ed itself to Buddha to be cooked 

 and eaten, when he was wandering hungry in the forest. The 

 Northman saw there the two children whom Mani the Moon 

 caught up, as they were taking the water from the well Byi'gir, 

 and who are carrying the bucket on the pole between them 

 to this day. Elsewhere in Europe, Isaac has been seen carry- 

 ing the bundle of wood up Mount Moriah for his own sacrifice, 

 and Cain bringing from his field a load of thorns as his ofiering 

 to Jehovah. Om- own " Man in the Moon " was set up there 

 for picking sticks on a Sunday, and he, too, carries his thorn- 

 bush, as CaUban had seen, " I have seen thee in her, and I do 



^ Schu'ren, ' Die Wandersagen der Neuseelander und der Mauimythos;' Eiga, 

 1856. 2 ElUs, Polyn. Ees., vol. i. p. 531. 



