LITERARY ASPECTS OF NORTH AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY. 
21 
to side the gourd would rattle, keeping time with his song. 
When the hawk came to the place where Holy One was waiting, 
the latter said, ‘Grandfather, how pretty you look!’ The hawk 
stopped and then Holy One said again, ‘Grandfather, why are 
you travelling around ?’ He answered, ‘Grandson, the sons 
of the chief have been shot with arrows and it is to their place 
that I am going.’ ‘Grandfather, what will you do when you get 
there ?’ ‘Well, grandson, I will go on singing as I have been doing 
and when I get there they will open the door for me and I will 
go in.’ ‘You look very pretty, grandfather. Would you mind 
going back a little bit and coming again ? But turn from side to 
side a little more and come down lower.’ ‘All right,’ said the 
hawk, and he went back a little way and started again, singing 
as he went. ‘Grandfather, make a few more turns and come 
down a little bit lower,’ said Holy One. The hawk did as he 
was told and came down a little lower. As he went by, Holy 
One caught him and killed him. Then he skinned him and put 
the skin on himself and acted exactly as the hawk had done.” 
There are two literary reasons why this hawk episode 
is repeated and given in detail. First, because Holy One has 
to reach the home of the water-spirits in disguise; secondly, 
because the episode of the killing of the water-spirits, owing 
to its importance, has to be carefully motivated. 
It is quite interesting to note the different way in which 
the incidents have been grouped in the various tales cited as 
illustrative of the second type of plot elaboration. In the tale 
of Holy One, the whole plot is foretold in part by the wood- 
pecker and in part by the old woman. In the case of the tale 
of Haxige, it is only in one of J. O. Dorsey’s versions that a large 
portion of the plot is foretold, while in the tale of “The man who 
visited the Thunderbirds” only that part of the plot which refers 
to the various tests of the hero is foretold. In the last tale the 
old woman foretells the various tests in three instalments instead 
of one. In a Mixe and Huave myth obtained in the state of 
Oaxaca, Mexico, in two versions, the incidents are in one version 
foretold in a single instalment and in the other in three. How 
are we best to account for this variability ? It is certainly not 
due to mere chance. It can, we believe, be best explained, 
in the main, by literary considerations. 
