i;i LIGU >\ \\i» I i i;i.M« >NIES L05 



border tribes of the Plains, in common with many other 

 parts of the continent, have an analogous scries of talcs 

 attributed to animal characters, the tendency at the 



center is to refer the same tales to a human character. 

 Curiously enough, the Dames for this character all have 

 in common the ideas of white and east and were auto- 

 matically applied to Europeans when first encountered. 

 For these reasons, if no other, the occurrence of a human 

 trickster hero appears as one of the most distinctive 

 characteristics of Plains culture. 



Irrespective of the preceding hero cycle, many 

 animal tales are to be found in the Plains. Among these, 

 as in most every part of the world, we find curious ways 

 of explaining the structural peculiarities of animals as 

 due to some accident ; for example, the Blackfoot 

 trickster in a rage tried to pull the lynx asunder whence 

 that animal now has a long body and awkward legs. 

 Such explanations abound in all classes of myths and are 

 considered primary and secondary according to whether 

 they directly explain the present phenomena as in the 

 case of the lynx, or simply narrate an anecdote in which 

 the transformation is a mere incident. Occasionally, 

 one meets with a tale at whose ending the listener is 

 abruptly told that thenceforth things were ordered so 

 and so, the logical connection not being apparent. 

 Probably what happens here is that the native author 

 knowing it to be customary to explain similar pheno- 

 mena by mythical occurrences, rather crudely adds the 

 explanation to a current tale. However, not all the 

 animal tales of the Plains function as explanations of 



