LITERARY ASPECTS OF NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY. 47 
did this. Finally one of them said, 'Oh, that is merely an old 
stump. It has always been there.’ 'Well, if that is the case, 
you had better go and look at it.’ Then one of them went over 
to inspect it and the mice ran out in every direction. He then 
said, 'Surely, this can’t be Holy One, for if it were he would 
not have changed himself into a stump with living mice in it. 
Besides that, I told you it always stood there, but you wouldn’t 
believe me.” 
In a similar way it could be shown by comparing other episodes 
and themes that the motivation is characteristically different 
in different versions of the same myth. How are we to explain 
this variety in motivation ? All we have to assume is a skilful 
raconteur-author who seizes the different moments of importance 
in a plot and plays with them, now motivating one in one way, 
now in another, so that he may best fix the listener’s attention 
and derive the greatest artistic pleasure. In other words, 
over and above the precise form in which he obtains a myth 
stands his relation as an artist to the dramatic situations 
contained in it and to his audience. 
With the psychological situations firmly in his mind the 
author-raconteur selects from the relatively large stock-in-trade 
of themes, episodes, and motifs belonging to his cultural back- 
ground, those he cares to use for developing his plot, showing 
in some cases a conservative, in others a radical tendency. He 
may even add entirely new motifs, but this does not seem to be 
common. As this selection is intimately bound up with the 
individuality of the author-raconteur, it is presumably im- 
possible to tell exactly what he is likely to select . 1 
DIFFUSION OF MYTHS FROM THE ABOVE POINT OF VIEW. 
Let us now see what bearing our analysis has upon the 
problem of myth diffusion. Is it, for instance, the whole myth- 
complex or the plot that is borrowed as such, or are the episodes, 
motifs, or themes borrowed separately ? No thorough study 
1 I am leaving out entirely the important subject of the literary devices used in the nove- 
lette, reserving a discussion for a separate paper. Suffice it to say that this aspect of the myth- 
complex more than corroborates the importance assigned to the author-raconteur in the literary 
remodelling of the myth. 
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