RELIGION and CEREMONIES. 99 



other hand, coyote tales appear among the Pawnee, 

 Ankara, and occasionally among the Dakota, but as 

 the adventures of a minor character. Among the 

 Omaha and some neighboring tribes, the rabbit is a 

 secondary trickster. Since the rabbit is prominent 

 in the myths of the Cherokee of the Southeastern area 

 and the coyote among the Plateau tribes, it seems safe 

 to explain their occasional presence in the Plains as 

 due to borrowing. Thus, taking the trickster alone 

 it is possible to form clearly defined cultural groups 

 in the Plains. 



Animal tales are also common among the Indian 

 tribes. 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 wmence 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 transforma- 

 tion 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 w r hat hap- 

 pens here is that the native author knowing it to be 

 customary to explain similar phenomena by mythical 

 occurrences, rather crudely adds the explanation to a 

 current tale. However, not all the animal tales of the 



