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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



translations, which are often inelegant and difficult to read and 

 understand. To remedy these defects the whole translation must 

 be rewritten in accord with current methods of expression. 



Another method of preserving a myth is to record it exactly as 

 told, in the broken English of its narrator. The most poetic con- 

 ception is thus sometimes reduced to grotesque caricature, and 

 the value of the record lies not so much in its subject-matter as 

 it does in the estimation which is formed of the narrator's ability 

 of expressing in our tongue the thoughts of his own. The charm- 

 ing Uncle Remus stories are of this character but the result is only 

 a study in brogue or dialect, and fails to convey to our minds the 

 ideas which exist in the mind of the native myth teller. From 

 the standpoint of literature and psychology it is the impression, 

 its form, its spirit that we wish to apprehend. The same medium 

 may produce different results if employed on different substances. 

 The mind of the modern progressive man of today is of a different 

 texture from that of the savage or the peasant, and the same idea 

 produces different emotions and associations in these classes of 

 intellect. 



Many have employed the method of entirely recasting primitive 

 ideas in their own thought molds, eliminating all the original 

 idioms and picturesque eccentricities of expression and presenting 

 the folk tale in all the verbiage of contemporary literature. The 

 plot and motive of the original relation is warped and modified 

 to fit modern requirements, the original elements are lost and the 

 story becomes simply a modern one built upon the shattered skele- 

 ton of the old. The use of this method has produced a mass of 

 florid, ocherous, recast and garbled folklore, which nevertheless, 

 is presented as genuine. 



There is yet another method which embraces some of the worthy 

 features previously suggested. It may have its drawbacks to be 

 criticized but it is full of merit notwithstanding. By this method 

 the transcriber attempts to assimilate the ideas of the myth tale 

 as he hears it, seeks to become imbued with the spirit of its char- 

 acters, and, shutting out from his mind all thought of his own 

 culture, and momentarily transforming himself into the culture 

 of the myth teller, records his impressions as he recalls the story. 

 His object is to produce the same emotions in the mind of civilized 

 man which is produced in the primitive mind, which entertains the 

 myth without destroying the native style or warping the facts of 

 the narrative. If in the vernacular the ideas convey tragic, 

 mysterious, or horrifying impressions, and the style is vigorous. 



