LITERARY ASPECTS OF NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY. 
27 
of little importance, as far as the story itself is concerned, al- 
though it may be of importance in studying the diffusion of 
versions. The fact that in these two myths the animals that 
act as intermediaries, although different, belong to the same type, 
being water animals in the one case and birds of prey in the other, 
indicates, in all probability, that the Omaha and Winnebago 
versions are rather closely related. 
If, again, in identical plots the heroes are regarded as human 
beings until the very end of the myth, where we discover that 
they are really either animals or celestial objects, it does not 
disturb us if the explanation is clearly an after-thought. If, 
however, in the plot itself there are indications of the animal or 
celestial nature of the hero, are we to regard his human nature 
as secondary or not ? It is quite likely that if a tendency to 
identify heroes with stars, for instance, exists that it would 
influence the type of actions he performs. On the other hand, the 
nature of an originally celestial hero might become so attenuated 
that but for the survival of certain “celestial” episodes, it mer- 
ges completely into a human being. Perhaps the voracious hero 
who turns out to be the child of the sun and moon represents such 
a merging of celestial into human hero. It is naturally rather 
difficult to be certain of the latter process, whereas for the 
former, the extension of a specific interpretation over all the 
features of a hero’s activities, examples can be easily found, as 
the following will show. 
The Winnebago have a rather popular myth called “Brother 
and Sister,” with the following plot: A man living with his sister 
is one day challenged to a fight by a stranger and defeated. 
His head is then cut off and taken away. His body goes on 
living, however, and is taken care of by his sister. His sister 
gives birth to two boys who succeed in killing the conqueror of 
their uncle and restore the head to the latter's body. Two 
versions of this myth were obtained. Version A is summarized 
above; version B was identical with that of A, but the uncle is 
supposed to be the evening star, the mother the moon, the 
father the sun, and the children show their parentage in the dis- 
guises they assume, such as that of vibrating light and heat. 
At the same time, the boys have become identified with the twins 
