272 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



BOOK REVIEWS 



Edited by William Frederick Bade. 



"The Dawn of Lovers of poetry and romance as well as 

 THE World."* ethnologists will take delight in "The Dawn 



of the World," Dr. C. Hart Merriam's most 

 recent volume, which deals with the myths and legends of a 

 single tribe of Indians, the Mewan tribe of California. The stories 

 have been handed down through the generations, the more ancient 

 ones telling of the time when the earth was inhabited by the 

 First People, curious beings, half human, half god-like, but always 

 possessing something of the nature or characteristics of the ani- 

 mals or elements into which they were finally transformed. These 

 First People were the creators, not the progenitors of the Indian 

 people. 



The Mewan tribe, while distributed rather widely over Central 

 California, was not nomadic and consequently the mythology and 

 even the language varies somewhat in the villages of the different 

 localities. Thus most of the legends say that Coyote-man, the 

 chief divinity of the First People, made the Indians out of 

 feathers; but the now extinct Bodega Bay Indians beheved that 

 the god used sticks of wood, unfortunately of varying degrees of 

 strength and toughness. For the tribes made of oak or madrone 

 were hardy and endured, while they, being made out of the sticks 

 of the sage-herb which are hollow, had little strength and per- 

 ished early. 



The fire myths are particularly beautiful. There was a time, 

 the Indians say, when the world was so dark, cold and foggy 

 that the First People were unable to find food. But they knew 

 that somewhere was the light and warmth that would relieve 

 them of their misery. The First People who afterwards became 

 the Robin and the Humming-bird stole the fire from a far 

 country and brought it down to earth. The Robin's breast now 

 shows where he laid upon it at night to keep it from growing 

 cold. The Humming-bird flew to the far east, where the sun 

 rises and caught a spark from the Star-woman's fire and carried 

 it home under his chin, where the mark shows to this day. The 

 tales having famiHar scenes for their setting, Hke those of the 

 Rock Giant of Tamalpais and the Falcon of Mt. Diablo, will 



* The Dawn of the World. By C. Hart Merriam. The Arthur H. Clark 

 Company, Cleveland, 191 o. 273 pages and 15 plates. Price, $3-50. 



