8 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OE SCIENCE. 



It was afterward, however, discovered that the American races also possessed 

 a wealth of traditionary lore which was as charming and as striking in its 

 resemblances, as that of the Orient or of the classics, and it was ascertained that 

 the realm of comparative mythology was not confined to the Aryan race, nor 

 even to the Eastern Hemisphere. 



Students, as they read the Scandinavian and then the American myths, were 

 surprised at their striking similiarity. Such was the resemblance that the reader 

 was almost inclined to suppose that the Icelandic stories had been carried west- 

 ward and repeated to the tribes of Aborigines by some pre-historic wanderers, or 

 that some unknown intercourse between the two hemispheres had existed. Thus 

 the volumes of " Algic Researches," by Schoolcraft, were found worthy a place 

 beside the Norse Tales or even the writings of Homer. 



Still later there appeared another development of the same great subject. 

 The researches of that remarkable man, Brasseur de Brebourg, threw up before 

 the notice of the civilized world, that wonderful waif of literature called Popal 

 Voh, and it was found, that far to the southwest, among the half civilized races 

 of Central America, there were myths and strange traditions which carried one's 

 mind, not back to the Norse regions, but to the Orient; and again the resem- 

 blances between the traditions of the Eastern and Western Hemisphere surprised 

 the students. 



The depth and richness of American mythology proved remarkable, and 

 there were beauties and wonders in it almost as striking as those of the Scandi- 

 navian or the classic. 



It remained, however, for that learned Sanscrit scholar, Max Miiller, to 

 show the value of these various collections of myths. In his "Chips from a 

 German Workshop " he has shown that comparative mythology is really as im- 

 portant in the study of mankind as is comparative philology. He has given a 

 comprehensive sketch of the various religions of the East, with their earliest his- 

 tory and development, and has at the same time referred to the many works on 

 the Folk-Lore and Nursery tales of other lands. 



He has shown the value of history in bringing to light the earliest religious 

 ideas of mankind, and yet has suggested the necessity of a philosophic and 

 scientific study of the subject. He says, *" History with its dusty and mold- 

 ering pages, is to us a sacred volume — as sacred as the book of nature. What 

 compels men in the midst of these busy times to sacrifice their leisure to a sub- 

 ject apparently so unattractive and useless, if not the conviction that in order to 

 obey the Delphic commandment — in order to know what man is — we ought to 

 know what man has been." 



Now it is this view of the importance of the earliest history of mankind 

 in throwing light upon many of the great problems of science to which we would 

 call attention. 



The history of those distant ages and distant men assumes a new charm as 



* Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. II, p. 3, article "Comparative Mythology." 



