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The most noteworthy feature about Indian folk-lore, however, 
is its purely anecdotal character. The emotions it portrays are few 
and simple — fear and anger, pity and love, jealousy and hatred — 
and even these are implied rather than expressed. Nowhere is there 
any attempt to analyse the characters, to depict their motives, or to 
introduce any jisychological reflections. The stories relate nothing 
but events, and either end as soon as an incident is complete or pass 
on immediately to the next episode without comment. The moral 
tales familiar to us from other parts of the woidd found little favour 
in Indian literature, which seldom condemns wrongdoing or repre- 
sents the coward and villain as more unfortunate than the brave 
and upright. It is true that one or two tribes in British Columbia, 
notably the Tahltan and the Carrier, had a kind of moral tale, and 
that they even emphasized the moral by a short sentence at the 
conclusion. Such are the stories of abused orphans who receive the 
aid of supernatural powers in avenging their wrongs, stories that 
end with expressions like “ do not mock the poor.” But even among 
these tribes the moral sentence often seems little more than a stylistic 
feature, a convenient literary device for bringing a tale to its con- 
clusion. It is seldom the true mlson d’etre of the story or an integral 
part of it, for other tribes that relate exactly the same tales omit the 
appended moral. 
Although they were not moral in form, a large proportion of 
the tales undoubtedly had a considerable ethical influence, especially 
when narrated at night in the fitful firelight by some old man or 
woman who could add the comments suggested by a long experience 
of life. Public recitals of war-exploits, too, such as occurred among 
the Iroquoians before they set out on the war-path, stimulated the 
youths to military valour. The great “ sun-dance festival ” of the 
Blackfoot, at which the whole tribe extolled the purity of the sun- 
dance woman and her predecessor, the warriors recited their earlier 
deeds, and the elder men related the tribal traditions, had something 
of the character of a prolonged spiritual revival;^ while in British 
Columbia the personal ownership of many tales, and their elaborate 
dramatization at public festivals under the mantle of religion, gave 
them the inherent value and force that we associate only with the 
stories of the Old Testament. 
1 The sun-dance, of course, liad other aspects besides the religious and moral. It provided an 
opportunity for social reunions and for much gaiety and festivity. 
